The Unemployment rate in the UK fell again in March as 35k new jobs were created. However, that is where the good news ended, as real wages fell as inflation bit into pay packets. With wages rising by 4% year-on-year, real pay fell by 1% when adjusted for inflation.

While the latest data is encouraging, there were warnings that the end of the trend for more jobs being created could be coming to an end.

The Office for National Statistics warned that it was only the significant increase in bonus payments, mostly linked to the Pandemic, that has meant that wage increases remain relatively close to the level of inflation.

Although the Bank of England is expected to continue to hike rates by twenty-five basis points at each of its next three meetings, the fear is that it will prove too little too late and the country is going to be expected to live with a rate of inflation that is well above the Government's target for the rest of this year, the whole of 2023 and well into 2024.

This will be coupled by an economic slowdown over the rest of this year that could become a recession, although, were the economy to contract sufficiently to bring a recession, the Central bank would be expected to act.

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