UK wage growth picks up to 3.4 per cent but vacancies fall again, official data shows

Growth in UK wages accelerated between March and May, after an earlier slowdown, but the number of vacancies continued falling, official data showed on Tuesday.

Total pay rose 3.4 per cent compared with a year earlier, up from 3.1 per cent growth in the three months to April, comfortably outpacing inflation, the Office for National Statistics said.

However, vacancies, measured with a smaller lag, dropped to 827,000 in the April-June period, a fall compared both with a year earlier and the January-March period.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 per cent, the lowest since 1974.

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