Friday 15 November 2019

A slowing economy is starting to feed through into the labour market

a post by Hannah Slaughter for the Resolution Foundation blog

We’re starting to see signs that the slowing economy may now be feeding through to the labour market. Even as GDP growth has faltered in recent months, and with Brexit uncertainty ramped up and productivity stagnant, the labour market had remained strong. The employment rate had reached a record high, with pay growth improving.

And at first glance, the headline statistics out today [12 November 2019] show a strong labour market continuing to defy economic uncertainty, with employment remaining high and unemployment and inactivity rates stable. But there are signs that the jobs market is catching up with the wider economic trends. Today’s data shows the highest quarterly fall in employment since May 2015. Jobs growth is tailing off, and pay growth is weakening.

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