Latest pay and labour statistics:
The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs 12-month inflation rate was 2.3 per cent in February 2017, up from 1.9 per cent in January,
The employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work) was 74.6 per cent, the joint highest since comparable records began in 1971; and,
Total average earnings year on year increased by 1.7 per cent including bonuses and by 1.9 per cent excluding bonuses, in December 2016.