UK wage growth failed to keep up with the rising cost of living between December and February, according to new data.
Wages rose, but when taking rising prices into account, regular pay showed a 1% fall from a year earlier.
“Basic pay is now falling noticeably in real terms,” said Darren Morgan from the Office for National Statistics.
Latest inflation figures show the cost of living is rising at its fastest pace for 30 years.
Recent figures showed inflation reached 6.2% in February and new data, due out on Wednesday, is forecast to show a further rise in March.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the average wage, excluding bonuses, rose by 4% in the three months to February compared with a year earlier.
The data revealed a sharp contrast in pay growth between the public and private sectors. Average total pay growth for the private sector was 6.2% but just 1.9% for those in the public sector.
‘The cutbacks start to add up’
Tom Southern, a recruitment consultant from Macclesfield, says he and family are having to make cutbacks because of the rising cost of living.
The 30-year-old says he recently moved jobs to get a better salary, but it still does not go far enough.
“We’re not massively uncomfortable, we have a house and two cars. But it’s the little cutbacks you have to make, it starts to add up.”
The father of three says it costs £1.80 a litre to put diesel in the family car and their energy bill has gone from £69 to £268 a month. Their weekly shop at Aldi is up from £50-60 to £80-90.
Tom and his partner, who is a midwife, also have loans to pay, childcare costs , and are getting married this month which is another bill to pay.
“I don’t see myself as unfortunate, it’s other people I feel sorry for,” he says. “I don’t see how single parents or people on a low wage can make ends meet.”
Falling unemployment
The ONS said the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, from 3.9% last month.
Capital Economics said the fall in unemployment was mainly due to people taking themselves out of the workforce by retiring or by looking after family or long-term sick. Capital Economics senior UK economist Ruth Gregory said the number of people classed as inactive rose by 76,000 in the three month period.
Meanwhile, the number of job vacancies reached a fresh high of 1.29 million between January and March – a rise of 492,400 roles compared with the pre-pandemic first three months of 2020.
The ONS said the highest rate of vacancies was in construction, which rose by 18.7% in the first three months of the year. Sectors such as hotels and food services, including restaurants, and entertainment saw job openings increase by 13.1%.
However, there was a fall in demand for people in the gas and electricity sectors where vacancy rates dropped by 14%.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the latest figures “show the continued strength of our jobs market”, adding that the government was “helping to cushion the impacts of global price rises through over £22bn of support for the cost of living this financial year”.
But Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, said the data shows that “Conservative choices are leaving real wages squeezed and people worse off”.
“At a time like this, Rishi Sunak could have chosen a one-off windfall tax on huge oil and gas company profits to cut household energy bills by up to £600.
“Instead, he’s decided to make Britain the only major economy to land working people with higher taxes in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
