Regular weekly wages, excluding bonuses, increased by 4% between December 2021 and February 2022, but when adjusted for inflation they actually decreased compared to the previous year. This happened despite record job vacancies, which reached 1.3 million in January to March 2022. The blow to workers reflects rising living costs, including increases in national insurance contributions and energy bills. Darren Morgan, director of financial statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “While strong bonuses continue to mitigate the impact of rising prices on people’s overall earnings, the basic wage is now falling sharply in real terms.” Pat McFadden, the shadow secretary of the Treasury Department, said the data showed that “conservative choices are squeezing real wages and making people worse.” “In an era like this, Rishi Sunak could have opted for a lump sum tax on the huge profits of oil and gas companies to cut household energy bills by up to 600 600,” he said. “Instead, it decided to make Britain the only major economy that would attract higher-paying workers in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.” The chancellor said his government was “helping to mitigate the effects of global price increases by supporting more than 22 22 billion in cost of living this fiscal year”. “We also help people find new jobs and ensure that work is always paid, as this is the best way to support households in the long run,” he added. Mr Sunak said the figures showed “the continuing strength of our labor market”, stressing that the number of employees rose again in March and that unemployment had fallen even below pre-pandemic levels. The number of paid employees in the UK rose by 35,000 between February and March to 29.6 million, according to the ONS, but this was the smallest monthly increase since February last year. Mr Morgan said that while unemployment was falling again, “we are still seeing a growing number of people leaving the labor market and as they are not working or looking for work, they are not counted as unemployed.” He said initial estimates showed there had been only a small increase in the number of wage workers in March, while job vacancies had been growing at a slower pace for almost a year. Annual inflation reached a new 30-year high of 6.2% in February and the Bank of England expects it to reach 8% this year, which will only worsen the impact on the British. The Office for Budget Responsibility recently warned that households would experience the biggest drop in real incomes since records began in 1956, forecasting a drop of more than 2.2% this year.
