UK hires surged in June as economy rebounds – ONS

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – The number of employees on the payroll of British companies has increased the most since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data which paints a picture of a booming job market boom and also show increasing inflationary pressure due to rising wages.

A day after a senior Bank of England official said the time for the central bank to think about taking action to avoid inflation was approaching sooner than it had thought, tax data showed showed a jump of 356,000 jobs in June compared to May.

This increase is due to a jump of 94,000 jobs in accommodation and catering, which have been strongly affected by the bottlenecks which are now largely lifted, and by an increase of 72,000 jobs in administrative and support services, including including temporary staff in recruitment agencies.

The overall unemployment rate for the three months ending in May stood at 4.8%, said the Office for National Statistics.

Economists polled by Reuters mainly expected the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.7% in the three months leading up to April.

But the ONS said the population estimates used to calculate the unemployment rate had changed and the figure for the three months through April would have been 4.8% with the new system.

Thursday’s figures showed the fastest wage growth in the year to May since the record began in 2000, though comparisons have been skewed by larger job losses among low-paid workers and a comparison with depressed wages a year ago.

Average weekly earnings in the three months leading up to the end of May increased 7.3% from the previous year.

The ONS estimated the underlying wage growth, excluding distortions caused by the pandemic, to be between 3.9% and 5.1% for average weekly earnings. For the average salary excluding bonuses, it was between 3.2% and 4.4%.

The pickup in hiring and wages has added to signs of how quickly the UK economy is recovering from its nearly 10% crash last year when it was hit by one of the heaviest balance sheets COVID and long lockdowns around the world.

BoE Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said on Wednesday that the central bank may start thinking about canceling its huge monetary stimulus sooner than expected. Read more

UK inflation could rise to 4% “for a period later this year” – double the BoE’s target – and the factors pushing it could take some time to subside, he said. -he declares.

Reporting by William Schomberg and David Milliken

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.