The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom remains stable, but wages continue to plummet, according to figures released on Tuesday, as soaring inflation creates a cost-of-living crisis and mounting industrial discontent.
In the three months leading up to the end of November, the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7% compared to the three months leading up to the end of October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, actual earnings decreased by 2.6% as inflation continued to spiral out of control.
“The real value of people’s pay continues to fall, with prices still rising faster than earnings,” said ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan.
“This remains amongst the fastest drops in regular earnings since (comparable) records began” in 2001.
Public and private sector workers in Britain have gone on strike because their wages have not kept up with rising costs of living.
According to the ONS, the number of working days lost in November owing to strikes was 467,000, the highest number since November 2011.
Communication, transportation, and education were all severely impacted.
Britain’s major teaching and nursing unions announced Monday further walkouts over wages, and the government is trying to restrict strikes with a contentious law, so it’s likely that industrial action will increase.
On Wednesday, December inflation data will be released by the ONS.
As a result of supply limitations brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the removal of pandemic lockdowns, and the consequences from Brexit, inflation jumped to 10.7 percent in November, the highest level in over 40 years.
Increasing wages, according to the UK government, might lead to higher prices.
“We must not do anything that risks permanently embedding high prices into our economy, which will only prolong the pain for everyone,” said finance minister Jeremy Hunt in response to Tuesday’s data.
»UK unemployment is steady but wages have tanked further, official data shows«