Official figures from the office of National Statistics showed regular pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 7. 8 in may tojuly compared with a year earlier matching the pace of inflation over the same period. However, the Unemployment Rate increased to 4. 3 between may and july compared to 4. 2 the month before, and Job Vacancies fell to below a million. Lets hear from our money and work reporter Peter Ruddick who gave us a breakdown of what the figures mean. Lets just run through the two main headlines and what they mean so firstly on wage growth, so as you say, it has finally caught up on inflation in most of the uk, at least, but it is just an average, not everyone will be feeling it. It means it will be following the first time in a year, wage growth. It is just an average, but also it is going to take more than one months figures to reverse the many changes, people in the uk have been experiencing, it is going to take quite a while for this to recover. The second caveat is wage growth
And you naturally think rates should stop going up, this is evidence for your argument. So there was something for everyone today in these figures, especially in the bank of england, setting us up for quite an interesting meeting next week when theyll decide the next Interest Rate rise or whether they keep them on hold. Lets stay with the cost of living, the pub chain, Slug And Lettuce is set to charge more per point during peak hours. They said the price rise reflected the higher cost the company was facing, including extra security. 800 of its Four Thousand pubs will introduce what is known as dynamic pricing during peak times at weekends. Has become an epidemic past year, in according tojohn lewis. The retailer had seen fences double during the past months of shoplifting. She also said it was not right with shop workers having to put up with abuse and attacks. A group of retailers, including john lewis, have agreed to fund a Police Operation to crack down on shoplifting. 2a stores i