UK Employment hits record high, but Wages still struggling

Description

The UK Economy and UK Employment sector are continuing to experience changeable times.

Here we run down a few of the most recent findings and trends:

During the last part of 2017, UK employment went up by 102,000
The number of people of working age now stands at 32.2 million
The UK employment rate is now a record 75.3%
There were 160,000 fewer people out of work than a year previously
There was also a record high of vacancies at the end of 2017 with 810,000 active jobs. With employment so high, coupled with a significant shortage of available, skilled workers, it is a challenging time to fill all these jobs!
The growth of wages continued to struggle to keep up with the price of living
Wage growth remained around 2.4% by the end of 2017, lagging behind the UK inflation rate of 3%
There is potential for a small increase in wages during 2018, as employers look to entice new talent
We are though unlikely to see a more significant raise for sometime as the widespread skills shortage continues and Brexit talks remain slow-going