According to the UK national Statistics office employee earnings growth in the UK slowed quite dramatically in the three months to April. But unemployment continued to decline.
The office for National Statistics said average earnings growth, including bonuses, slowed to four per cent in the three months to April from the year earlier, after March's downwardly revised 4.4 per cent rise.
The April rate is well below analysts’ expectations for the reading to remain unchanged from the initial estimate for March of 4.5 per cent.
The rate was unchanged from March, which was revised down from 3.7 to 3.6 per cent. Elsewhere, the figures showed falls in the two main measures of unemployment. The number of Britons claiming the jobseeker's allowance, in May dropped by 9,300, after falling by an upwardly revised 16,000 in April.