Britain’s pay packets are shrinking just as Labour’s tax-grabbing Chancellor Rachel Reeves limbers up to clobber workers again.
Official figures this week revealed wages are growing at their slowest pace in more than three years, piling fresh pressure on families already struggling under Reeves’ economic squeeze.
The Office for National Statistics said average regular earnings excluding bonuses crept up by just 4.8% in July, the weakest rise since June 2022. Total pay including bonuses was only 4.7%.
That number matters, because it’s the figure used to set the state pension under the triple lock, meaning pensioners could soon see a bigger rise than many workers.
But the jobs market paints an even bleaker picture. The number of Brits on company payrolls fell for the ninth month out of the last ten, with another 8,000 jobs lost in August.
Since Reeves’ £40billion tax raid in last year’s Budget, payrolled employment has slumped by 153,000, leaving millions wondering where the so-called “growth plan” has gone.
Unemployment is stuck at 4.7% in the three months to July.
ONS chief Liz McKeown admitted: “The labour market continues to cool, with the number of people on payroll falling again, while firms also told us there were fewer jobs in the latest period.”
Economists now expect Reeves to hike taxes yet again in her November 26 Budget, as she scrambles to plug yet another gaping hole in Britain’s finances.
