Unemployment in the UK has fallen even below pre-pandemic levels as employers struggle to hire staff and more people leave the workforce. Wage squeezing in Britain has continued, with regular wages falling by 1% in the last year after adjusting for inflation. The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom fell to 3.8% in the three months to February, according to the latest labor force survey released this morning. This is the lowest rate since October-December 2019, just before the Covid-19 hit the economy, with total unemployment falling by 86,000 to 1,296 million. Employment increased by 10,000 during the quarter, with 32,485 people now employed. This left the employment rate in the UK at 75.5%, still 1.1 percentage points lower than before the coronavirus pandemic. In contrast, the rate of economic inactivity increased by 0.2 percentage points to 21.4% in December 2021 to February 2022. This is due to the fact that 76,000 more people became economically inactive in the quarter, bringing the total to 8.857 million. This increase came from those who are financially inactive because they care for their family or home, retirees or the long-term ill, the ONS explains. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) The key indicators for the UK labor market for December 2021 to February 2022 show that ▪️ employment was 75.5% ▪️ unemployment was 3.8% οικονομ economic inactivity was 21.4% ➡️ pic.twitter.com/pOxpviFeKq April 12, 2022 The companies added more staff, with 35,000 more paid in March than in February. However, while the number of full-time employees has increased in the last quarter, this has been offset by the decrease in part-time employees, as shown in this chart: Photo: ONS Vacancies set a new record during the quarter, reaching 1,288,000. However, the growth rate of vacancies continued to slow down. 50,200 new openings were added in January to March 2022 compared to the previous quarter, the lowest rise in almost a year. The largest increase was in human health and social work, which increased by 13,100 to a new record of 215,500 vacancies. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) There were an average of 1.288 million job vacancies in January through March 2022, up from 1.238 million in the previous quarter pic.twitter.com/SKl4rGLKM2 April 12, 2022 More details follow ….
He is also coming today
Inflation in the US could reach a new 40-year high today, with March consumer price indexes forecasting a jump to 8.4% from 7.9% in February. This would be the fastest pace since 1981 and probably push the Federal Reserve to aggressively raise US interest rates in the coming months. Economists now expect half-point increases in both May and June. We also receive the latest economic confidence index for Germany from the ZEW institute, which will show the impact of the war in Ukraine on investors. European stock markets are expected to open lower, having yesterday a fall of about 0.6%. IGSquawk (@IGSquawk) European Starting Calls: #FTSE 7561 -0.75% # DAX 13996 -1.39% # CAC 6478 -1.18% # AEX 707 -1.15% # MIB 24520 -0.93% # IBEX 8495 -1, 05% 6 # 82S1 -1.05% 6% # 2S1 -1.05% # 2SMI. 0.81% # STOXX 3791 -1.27% # IGOpeningCall April 12, 2022
THE AGENDA
7 a.m. BST: UK Labor Market Report 10 am. BST: ZEW survey on German financial confidence in April 11 a.m. BST: NFIB Index of the US Business Optimism Index 1.30 p.m. BST: US Inflation Report for March
