Morgan Newfield - British Employers to Increase Wages

Morgan Newfield - U.K. wages to rise by more than initially expected as demand for labor continues to increase.

Economists at Morgan Newfield say that, according to the results of a recent industry survey, U.K. employers will offer bigger salary increases over the next 12 months than originally expected at the beginning of 2018.

Morgan Newfield analysts say this could reflect more rapid growth in the public sector as well as a higher demand for workers as Brexit draws near.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has said that employers plan to increase basic wages by 2.1 percent on average compared with the 1.8 percent that was expected in February this year.

Morgan Newfield analysts say the data from the CIPD is in keeping with the general trend of labor shortages and slowly increasing wages reported in a number of other industry surveys. These trends have supported the Bank of England’s belief that interest rates will need to gradually and consistently increase over the next few years.

While the overall employment situation is a positive one, the U.K. economy as a whole performed poorly in the first quarter of this year, posting its weakest yearly rate of growth since 2013 prompting the Bank of England to delay an interest rate increase that most had expected this month.

However, analysts at Morgan Newfield say widespread employer optimism about employment prospects could mean that the weak GDP results for the first quarter are not cause for great concern.

Demand for workers continues to rise in the second quarter of this year and has, thus far, not been met with sufficient supply.

Source: Morgan Newfield