According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) wages have begun to rise at their fastest pace in nearly a decade.
Wages were up by 3.3 per cent for the three months to October 2018 compared to the previous year, while average weekly wages hit £495 – the highest level since 2011.
Employment figures for this period also showed that 32.48 million people were in work, which is the highest figure since records began in 1971.
Due to the record levels of employment, the number of job vacancies across the UK rose by 10,000 during this quarter to 848,000.
Incredibly, of the 329,000 jobs created in the year to October, more than half went to people considered economically inactive.
Employment Minister, Alok Sharma, said: “The statistics show the enduring strength of our jobs market, with wages outpacing inflation for the ninth month in a row and employment at a record high.”
However, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The rise in pay growth is little consolation for workers in the middle of the longest pay squeeze in 200 years, with real wages expected only to get back to pre-crisis level in 2024. We need a plan that supports jobs and wages.”
In its own separate study, the TUC found that the UK average worker had actually lost £11,800 in real earnings since 2008 and that the UK may have suffered worse than many other leading economies.
Stephen Clarke, of the Resolution Foundation, said: “While Brexit uncertainty and political paralysis are having a cooling effect on the wider economy, the labour market is proving more resilient.
“After a pretty appalling decade, Britain remains some way off a return to the levels of real pay we enjoyed before the crash.”
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