- Home
- Publications
- UK Living Standards Falling At Record Pace
UK Living Standards Falling at Record Pace
Downloads
Wage Tracker June 2022Authors
Dr Kemar Whyte
Related Themes
Macro-Economic Modelling and ForecastingMain points
- The labour market continues to recover, with employment, vacancies, and wages all increasing.
- Notwithstanding, the cost-of-living squeeze remains evident as real regular pay fell at its fastest 3-month average rate in over a decade.
- NIESR’s wage tracker predicts that average weekly earnings growth will grow at 7.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, after increasing by 7.0 per cent in the first quarter. The strong growth is underpinned by a combination of high bonus payments and increasing regular pay.
"The latest ONS estimates indicate the spending power of UK households is falling at its fastest rate in over two decades. When adjusted for inflation, average regular earnings were about 3 ½ per cent lower in April than a year earlier, whilst the most recent three-month average saw its worst decline in over a decade. The increase in regular pay of 4.2 per cent in April is dwarfed by the rate of inflation. The current situation is a timely reminder of the precarious situation faced by policy makers, particularly the MPC, who must try and bring inflation under control without plunging the economy into a recession.”
Dr Kemar Whyte
Senior Economist, NIESR
Related Blog Posts
What is the Current State of the UK Economy?
Paula Bejarano Carbo
Stephen Millard
26 Feb 2024
7 min read
CPI Inflation Rose in December 2023, But is Likely to Fall Below 3 per cent by May
Huw Dixon
17 Jan 2024
7 min read
Related Projects
Related News
Why it’s not worth worrying that the UK has technically entered a recession
26 Feb 2024
4 min read
1.2 million UK Households Insolvent This Year as a Direct Result of Higher Mortgage Repayments
22 Jun 2023
2 min read
The Key Steps to Ensuring Normal Service is Quickly Resumed in the Economy
13 Feb 2023
4 min read
Related Publications
UK Economy on the Road to Recovery in 2024 Following the Mild Recession
13 Mar 2024
GDP Trackers