Unemployment Rate

Bank of England keeps interest rates unchanged at 5.25%

Following 14 straight rate rises, the Bank of England (BoE) has kept interest rates unchanged at 5.25%. At its latest meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a slim majority of 5–4 to maintain the current rate, though four members preferred to increase the rate to 5.5%. The MPC…

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Bank of England raises interest rates by 0.5% to 3.5%

The Bank of England (BoE) has announced that interest rates will be raised by 0.5%, bringing the base rate of interest to 3.5%, the highest level in 14 years.  At a meeting held on 14 December 2022, the Bank’s MPC voted by a majority of 6-3 to increase rates by…

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BoE hikes rates to 1.75%, warns UK to enter recession until 2024

The Bank of England (BoE) has raised interest rates from 1.25% to 1.75%, marking the biggest rise in rates since 1995. In its latest announcement, the BOE also projected that the UK would fall into a recession in the fourth quarter of the year, which is expected to last for…

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BoE raises interest rates to 1.25%

The Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee has voted to raise interest from 1% to 1.25% – marking its fifth rise in a row as it bids to offset the impact of rising inflation.  The Monetary Policy Committee voted by a majority of 6-3 to increase the rate to…

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Unemployment rate rises to 4.1% in July

The rate of unemployment in the UK increased 0.2% to 4.1% in the two months to July 2020, according to the ONS. The UK economic inactivity rate was also estimated at a joint record low of 20.2%, 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous year and 0.3 percentage points lower…

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Retail salaries rise as April sees vacancies increase

Advertised salaries in the retail sector saw a 1.7 percent increase last month, according to the latest data from job site CV-Library. Advertised jobs rose by 29 percent year-on-year, however application rates dropped by 13.1 percent when compared with data from April 2017. Pay rates in retail fell by six…

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Unemployment falls to lowest level for 11 years

The latest UK jobs figures show the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level for 11 years. Self-employment has increased by 213,000 since the same time last year, now totalling 15.1 percent of all those in work. The figures show there are 23.24 million people working full-time, an increase…

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Could rise in retail sales signal a stronger UK economy?

Better-than-forecasted sales figures have helped to raise hopes that the UK’s recession may not be as deep as first feared. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), sales volumes in July rose by 0.3 per cent and were up 2.8 per cent from a year earlier. ONS…

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Could rise in retail sales signal a stronger UK economy?

Better-than-forecasted sales figures have helped to raise hopes that the UK’s recession may not be as deep as first feared. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), sales volumes in July rose by 0.3 per cent and were up 2.8 per cent from a year earlier. ONS…

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UK economy to see a return to growth

The Ernst & Young Item Club has said in its latest quarterly forecast that falling inflation and a pick-up in consumer spending will help the UK return to growth. The forecast expects the inflation rate to fall to 1.7 per cent by the end of the year but overall growth…

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