Revealed: West Midlands unemployment rate and current claimant counts across our region
UK earnings growth has fallen back further amid mounting signs of a weakening jobs market, but wages are outstripping inflation at the fastest pace for more than two-and-a-half years, according to official figures.
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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said average regular earnings growth dropped to 5.7 per cent in the three months to May – down from 6 per cent in the previous three months and the lowest level since the quarter to September 2022.
With Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation taken into account, regular earnings rose by 3.2 per cent, which is the highest since the three months to August 2021.
The ONS estimated that the rate of unemployment remained unchanged at 4.4 per cent in the three months to May.
But it flagged further signals that the employment sector is cooling, with 30,000 fewer vacancies at 889,000 in the quarter to June.
The West Midlands unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent for March to May, up from 5.1 per cent previously.
Liz McKeown, ONS director of economic statistics, said: “Earnings growth in cash terms, while remaining relatively strong, is showing signs of slowing again.
“However, with inflation falling, in real terms it is at its highest rate in over two-and-a-half years.
