{"id":635669,"date":"2025-12-16T08:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635669\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T08:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:27:15","slug":"uk-unemployment-rises-and-wage-growth-slows-ahead-of-bank-of-england-interest-rate-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635669\/","title":{"rendered":"UK unemployment rises and wage growth slows ahead of Bank of England interest rate decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK unemployment rose and wage growth slowed, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in further signs of weakness in the jobs market ahead of the Bank of England<\/a>‘s (BoE) latest interest rate decision.<\/p>\n

The rate of UK unemployment rose to 5.1% in August to October \u2013 its highest level in nearly five years \u2013 which was in line with consensus expectations, but higher than the 5% seen in the previous three months.<\/p>\n

Annual growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, was 4.6% in August to October, which was down from 4.7% for the previous three months.<\/p>\n

The estimated number of payrolled employees in the UK fell by 149,000 in the year to October and declined by 22,000 on the month.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>Interest rates set to be cut by Bank of England ahead of Christmas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

An early estimate for payrolled employees in November showed a 171,000 fall on the year and a 38,000 decline month-on-month.<\/p>\n

The estimated number of vacancies in the UK was broadly unchanged in September to November, according to the ONS, showing a small decrease of 2,000.<\/p>\n

Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The overall picture continues to be of a weakening labour market.<\/p>\n

“The number of employees on payroll has fallen again, reflecting subdued hiring activity, while firms told us there were fewer jobs in the latest period.”<\/p>\n

“This weakness is also reflected in an increase in the unemployment rate, while vacancies remained broadly flat,” she added.<\/p>\n

The latest ONS data comes ahead of the BoE’s latest interest rate decision on Thursday, when the central bank is expected to cut rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%.<\/p>\n

Ashley Webb, UK economist at Capital Economics, said that the BoE “will take comfort from the more significant continued slowdown in its preferred measure of regular private sector pay growth”.<\/p>\n

“This lends some more support to our view that the Bank will deliver a present just in time for Christmas and cut interest rates from 4.00% to 3.75% on Thursday,” he said.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>How the new FCA rules will help you with money decisions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Joe Nellis, economic adviser at accountancy and advisory firm MHA, said: “October\u2019s labour market data reveals clear signs of strain in the UK economy.<\/p>\n

“The rise in unemployment marks a further shift in labour market dynamics. Redundancies are increasing, and vacancy numbers are continuing to fall as firms scale back hiring plans.<\/p>\n

“This adjustment is consistent with an economy operating under tight monetary policy and persistent uncertainty around global demand and the future of workplace technology.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK unemployment rose and wage growth slowed, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in further signs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[936,6724,748,393,4884,1144,15165,24164,712,16,5664,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-635669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-bank-of-england","10":"tag-boe","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-office-for-national-statistics","16":"tag-ons","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-unemployment","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115728301856847709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}