“While the labour market has seen some growth in employment, and a very slight rise in unemployment, it is getting steadily tighter. This implies that labour and skill shortages will increase and recruitment and retention may become more challenging. However, these pressures stand to significantly increase if the current uncertainty over Brexit deters more migrants from coming to the UK and net migration from the EU continues to fall.
“Wage growth has edged up slightly driven by the finance and business service sector. Real earnings have also strengthened. Historically, real wage growth and productivity growth have gone hand in hand, but it remains to be seen if rising real wages will also be reflected in better productivity figures in the months ahead, given the current Brexit crisis.
“It’s vital that employers look at how they can invest in skills and adopt the right people management practices to boost productivity in their organisation and the UK overall.”
