UK earnings are still stuck in wreckage of the financial crash

Labour market data shows that despite strong employment the growth in average earnings is half the rate of pre-crash era

Cast your mind back 10 years. It is early 2006 and everything seems to be going well. Unemployment is around 5%, the Bank of England prides itself on keeping inflation at or close to its 2% target, earnings are going up by 4% a year.

As we now know, this was the equivalent of the Edwardian summer - the calm before the storm. Since the financial and economic crisis of 2007-09, things have never been the same again.

Related: UK unemployment falls but wage growth weakens