UK labour market report – Claimant count July 2018 6.2k vs 3.8k exp

July 2018 UK labour market data 14 Auguts 2018

Prior 7.8k
June ILO unemployment rate 4.0% vs 4.2% exp. Prior 4.2%
Average weekly earnings 2.4% vs 2.5% exp 3m y/y. Prior 2.5%
Ex-bonus 2.7% vs 2.7% exp 3m y/y. Prior 2.7%
Employment change 42k vs 98k exp. Prior 137k

Wages hold up ex-bonus but the claimant count is ticking up a touch.

ONS Notes

Total pay growth dampened by bonus pay
Real wages flat for total and up 0.3% for regular pay (CPI measure)
Vacancies up 20K on quarter to 829K record high
Unemployment down 65K on quarter to 1.36M
Inactivity rate edges up 0.2% on quarter to 21.2%
Labour productivity increased 0.4% in Q2 following a fall of 0.4% in Q1 2018
Hours worked fell across the board Apr-Jun 2018 (Full & Part-time)

An ok report. A drop in unemployment by some margin and wages holding up well enough. A solid report without being spectacular. GBPUSD popped to 1.2827 but fell back quickly to 1.2795.

The drop to a record low unemployment rate was mainly due to UK nationals getting into work. That’s likely to be at the cost of immigrant workers leaving the UK due to Brexit.