Wages are rising at their highest level since 2008 says the Office of National Statistics following analysis of employment, unemployment and inactivity flows for December 2018.
•The level of employment increased by 79,000 on the quarter to a record high of 32.48 million in the three months to October 2018.
•The level of unemployment increased by 20,000 to 1.38 million; this was a second quarterly increase since the period November to January 2018.
•Economic inactivity decreased by 95,000 to 8.66 million; this was the first quarterly decrease since the period March to May 2018.
•Regular average weekly earnings increased by 3.3% on the year to reach £495 in October 2018.
•The ratio of private to public sector average weekly earnings has been increasing, which indicates that the gap between private and public sector earnings is narrowing.
