UK labour market giving mixed signals

Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey speaks on the policy outlook and responds to questions from the press following the decision to lower the policy rate by 25 basis points (bps) at the November meeting.

Key takeaways

“We still need to see services price inflation come down more broadly to keep CPI at 2%.”

“Not for us to judge on merit of national insurance rise but to respond to inflation impact.”

“Gradual approach to cutting rates will help give us time to assess impact of national insurance rise and other risks.”

“UK labour market giving mixed signals.”

“BoE agents and I have consistently heard from firms they expect to raise wages by 2-4% in 2025 vs 6-6.5% in 2023.”

” BoE survey shows firms’ pay growth expectations stabilising at 4% in recent months.”

“There could be lingering persistence in wage inflation pressures beyond what is in our forecast.”

 

Source: https://www.fxstreet.com/news/bailey-speech-uk-labour-market-giving-mixed-signals-202411071241