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The Work Foundation - Poor growth in regular pay weakens across all sectors

Ian Brinkley, chief economist at Lancaster University’s Work Foundation, commented on today's labour market statistics.

The Janus-faced labour market recovery continues. We have strong employment numbers, a significant drop in unemployment, and a sharp fall in the number of people in part time jobs who say they would like full time work – which suggests the recovery is at last making in-roads into under-unemployment. 

But the wage data is dismal. Growth in regular pay – excluding bonuses - measured by weekly average earnings is weakening across all sectors. Bonus pay was down even more. As a result, total pay measured by weekly annual earnings actually fell by 0.2 percentage points comparing the three months to June 2014 with the same three months a year ago. 

It is hard to see where the pay revival is going to come from – and until real wages start to grow again, it will not feel like much of a recovery to most people in work.”
 

Notes to editors 

1. Ian Brinkley, chief economist and Geraint Johnes, director, are both available for interviews, blogs, briefings, analysis, and written comment. 
2. The Work Foundation transforms people’s experience of work and the labour market through high quality applied research that empowers individuals and influences public policies and organisational practices. The Work Foundation is part of Lancaster University – an alliance that enables both organisations to further enhance their impact. 

Media enquiries: 

Angelo Evangelou 020 7976 3597 
aevangelou@theworkfoundation.com 

For urgent out-of-hours enquiries: 0782 552 7036

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