UK labor market slows growth deceleration and fears Brexit



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The strength of the UK labor market has created more jobs in the last three months of 2018, despite slowing global growth and worries about the impact of Brexit's uncertainty on the economy.

The United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics reported that 167,000 more people were employed in the last quarter of 2018 than in the previous three months. The employment rate remained stable at a record 75.8%.

According to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters prior to the release of the data, job growth was higher than market expectations of an increase of 140,000 jobs. In 2018, the British economy added 444,000 additional workers.

But this combination of weak overall economic growth and continued employment growth has resulted in lower productivity than in the previous year. Compared to 2017, production per hour in the last quarter of 2018 was 0.2% lower.

Low productivity growth has been a consistent feature of the UK economy over the past decade and is thought to be responsible for weak wage growth over the same period.

However, the average weekly salary, including bonuses, increased by 3.4% compared to 2018, compared to 2.1%, which leaves the salary of 1.3% in real terms compared to the previous year .

NSO's chief statistician, Matt Hughes, said the labor market remained robust and that the female unemployment rate had fallen below 4% for the first time in its history.

He added: "Most of the job growth over the past year has been with the British. However, the number of working foreign nationals continues to increase, despite the decline in the number of so-called "A8" workers, due to the increased number of people from non-EU countries. "

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