Pay growth slows but still outpaces rising prices

Wage growth slowed again in the British jobs market but is still outpacing price rises, official figures show.

Pay, excluding bonuses, grew by 6.2% in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period a year before, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

After taking price rises into account, pay went up by 1.9%.

But the statistics watchdog has said it could not guarantee the reliability of jobs market data.

The Office for Statistics Regulation suspended its Labour Force Survey in the autumn because of falling response rates.

Its fully updated survey will not be in place until September.

The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has said that the ONS figures are the Bank's only way to gauge unemployment, so their current unreliability is "posing challenges" as policymakers weigh up what to do about interest rates in the coming months.