Britain’s jobless rate has fallen to its lowest level for over 47 years but workers have seen their pay fall further behind rocketing inflation, according to official figures. The rate of unemployment dropped to 3.7% in the three months to March – the lowest since October to December 1974, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
For the first time, there were fewer unemployed people than job vacancies, although the fall in the rate was also down to a rise in the number of people dropping out of the jobs market, the figures showed. The ONS also laid bare the scale of the mounting cost-of-living crisis, revealing that regular pay excluding bonuses dropped by 2.9% in March when taking Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation into account – the biggest fall since November 2011.
In the three months to February, real regular pay was 2% lower, the steepest decline since 2013.
