Wage growth eased in the three months to September but remained close to record levels, while job vacancy numbers fell once more, figures showed today.
The Office for National Statistics said annual growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) cooled to 7.7% in July to September, from 7.9% last month, in line with expectations.
But including bonuses, annual growth in employees' average total pay was 7.9%, down from 8.2%, but well ahead of hopes for a fall to 7.3%.
The data showed the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 58,000 in the three months to October to 957,000, slipping for a 16th consecutive period.
Vacancies declined in 16 of the 18 industry sectors.
In the three months to September, the unemployment rate held at 4.2%, according to experimental figures the ONS is using to offset a drop in response rates to its usual Labour Force Survey of households which seeks to measure changes in employment and unemployment.
James Smith at ING Economics said the latest UK wage figures are generally good news from the perspective of the Bank of England.
Private sector regular pay growth, which strips out volatile bonus payments, inched lower to 7.8% from 8.1% on a year-on-year basis which is one of the three key metrics the Bank has said it’s looking at as a guide for policy, Smith pointed out.