Commenting on the labour market data published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics earlier today, “Jobs stats today are another sign that the fundamentals of the UK economy are strong,” said British Finance Minister Sajid Javid.
“Employment is at a new record high, wages are growing faster than inflation, and people are keeping more of what they earn,” Javid tweeted out.
Here is what TD Securities analysts had to say about the data:
“The soft spot was the unemployment rate coming in a tenth higher than expected at 3.9%. But the trend in employment growth is quite strong (+115K 3m/3m rate vs mkt 60k), so that points to a more robust labour market picture. Ex-bonus wage growth was in line with our forecast and a bit stronger than expected at 3.9% y/y (mkt 3.8%), notably hitting its highest growth rate since before the financial crisis.”