UK jobless rate matches lowest since 1975

LONDON: The UK jobless rate matched its lowest since 1975 in the three months through January but Britons are seeing their wages go nowhere.

Unemployment unexpectedly declined to 4.7%, matching the rate it last reached in 2005, the Office for National Statistics said.

The number of people in work rose by 92,000 to 31.9 million, the biggest increase since last summer.

The UK economy has defied predictions of doom since the Brexit vote, expanding at a robust 0.7% at the end of 2016, but the latest data show cost pressures in the labour market remain subdued.

Basic wage growth slowed to 2.3%. With the falling pound pushing up inflation, real incomes on some estimates are set for their worst year since 2013, putting a brake on the consumer spending that drives growth.

The figures may reinforce speculation that the first increase in interest rates since 2007 remains a long way off.

Bank of England officials meeting this week are expected to keep the benchmark rate at a recordlow 0.25%, with traders pricing in less than a 25% chance of a hike in 2017.

Policymakers now judge the economy can sustain unemployment as low as 4.5% without generating inflation. Adjusted for inflation, basic earnings grew just 0.8% in the latest three months, the least since 2014. In January alone, there was no growth at all.

Brexit is expected to take its toll on the labour market this year, as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger two years of divorce talks with the European Union this month.

The uncertainty will see the jobless rate rise to 5.1% by the end of the 2017, the Office for Budget Responsibility said last week. Employment is forecast to rise by just 100,000, not enough to absorb the demands of a growing workforce. In January, the jobless rate climbed to 4.8%.

The improvement in the latest period was driven by a 136,000-increase in the number of full-time workers.

The number of people who work for themselves climbed 49,000 to a record 4.8 million, underscoring the pressure on Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond to back down on a proposed £2bil tax increase on the self-employed. — Bloomberg