“The figures released today can be seen as good news for employees as the tight labour market is feeding into real pay growth. With inflation forecast to be lower than previously expected pay growth is likely to continue into 2019.
“In the absence of productivity growth to fund it, paying staff more is a strategy that can’t be used indefinitely. Businesses should consider retention and training of their current workforce to raise productivity and fill skills gaps.
“Overall, there is little here to concern policy makers in the short term – the UK labour market remains robust. These statistics must be tempered however, as they relate to halcyon days of September to November when government’s Brexit guidance still referred to a no deal Brexit as unlikely.”
