Pre-election UK interest rate cut unlikely despite cooling jobs market and rising mortgage arrears; Moody’s warns France over snap election – as it happened
Latest UK labour market report shows signs of cooling, as jobless rate hits highest since 2021
The next government will have to tackle the problem of falling employment, rather than falling inflation, says the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
Resolution point out that the UK unemployment rate has increased for four months in a row - from 3.8% in the last quarter of 2023, to 4.4% in the three months to April 2024 - an increase of 190,000 people out of work.
The labour market has continued to cool in early 2024, with both unemployment and inactivity up. Worryingly, the UK employment is closer to its mid-pandemic lows, than its pre-pandemic highs.
Turning around this poor performance, and kickstarting the kind of jobs growth Britain experienced in the 2010s will be a key task for the next government.
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