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STUC comment on Labour Market Figures showing the 19th month of real wages falling

Commenting on the labour market figures released today showing the 19th month of real term wages falling, STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer:

“It’s chronically hollow of well-renumerated Bank of England executives and politicians to be calling for wage restraint for ordinary workers whilst the pay packets of those in finance and business grows. These figures show once again that real terms wages are not driving inflation – they are falling further behind. The economic course the UK Government seem set upon is reckless and excepting a few at the top, will make us all poorer.

“Concerning, pay in Scotland seems to be falling behind the rest of the UK. To that end, the Scottish Government must immediately scrap its punitive public sector pay strategy of 3.5% and ensure workers get a decent pay rise that allows them to live with dignity in Scotland.”

END

Notes to editors:

Headline labour market figures for Scotland

• • Scottish unemployment rate 3.2% - up 0.2% on previous 3 months
• • Employment rate 75.1% - down 0.5% on previous 3 months
• • Economic inactivity rate 22.3% - up 0.3 % on previous 3 months
• • Driven by women leaving the labour market – reversal of pandemic trends when it was men re-entering the labour market. Long term sickness at high levels.
• • Fall in workforce jobs (a measure of jobs not people) between December 2022 and March 2023 driven by loss of 12,000 jobs in education and 13,000 jobs in agriculture, forestry and fishing. This is seasonally adjusted, so can’t be explained by seasonal factors.

Wage data

• Despite news reports leading with nominal pay growth (pay growth before inflation taken into consideration), the data shows we are in the 19th month of falling real pay across the UK.
• Across the UK real wages fell by 1.7% on the year, with public sector pay falling even faster at 3.1%.
• Over the last quarter, real wages are falling across all sectors except in finance and business services.
• Real wages remain below where they were in 2008.
• Since the start of the year pay growth in Scotland has been slower than the rest of the UK, according to PAYE data.

Information on wage growth and labour market data can be found here.