LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – British wages, excluding bonuses, rose at their slowest pace since late 2020 in the three months to January, according to official data published on Thursday which also suggested a weakening in employment might have bottomed out.
Regular earnings rose by 3.8% in the November-to-January period, the slowest increase since the three months to November 2020 and down from 4.1% in the final quarter of 2025, the Office for National Statistics said.
Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected pay growth of 4.0%.
The ONS data also showed Britain’s unemployment rate – which is calculated from a survey that the ONS is still overhauling – held at 5.2%, its highest since the COVID-19 pandemic period.
The number of people in payrolled employment rose by a provisional estimate of 20,000 people between February and January.
In January, payrolls rose by a revised estimate of 6,000 compared with a provisional estimate of a fall of 11,000.
Until this month, the Bank of England had been trying to gauge whether lingering inflation heat in the labour market or a weakening of hiring in recent months posed the bigger risk to the economy.
But new inflation pressures have emerged, caused by the jump in energy prices after the start of the war in the Middle East.
The BoE is expected to keep borrowing costs on hold at 1200 GMT on Thursday at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee’s March meeting which until recently had been expected to result in a quarter-point rate cut.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Muvija M and David Milliken)
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