The United Kingdom salaries rose according to recently published data by the Office for National Statistics, reaching its fastest growth pace in more than a decade.
Core earnings rose by a (year-to-year) 3.6% in the first quarter, beating the analyst's expectations which were at 3.5%. Pay growth rose 3.4%, also against the analysts' forecasts.
Unemployment hit its lowest level since the first quarter of 1975, which explains the increase in wages. The number of unemployed people fell to 1.3 million, however, the number of employed people only rose by 28,000, way below the analysts' expectations and the lowest since 2011.
This, together with a poor rise in the number of self-employed workers and the lowest job vacancies number in more than a year, concerned analysts as the job market seems to be losing its momentum.
Johnson and Hunt are pushing the EU to make concessions
According to anonymous European sources, Boris Johnson and his rival Jeremy Hunt seem to be trying to push the European Union to make concessions, claims Bloomberg.
Recently Boris Johnson reiterated his position about leaving without a deal, given that his government doesn't reach an accord with the EU, while his counterpart Jeremy Hunt gave the Union until September to moderate the stance regarding a potential new deal, which the union doesn't deem necessary without a good reason. Both also agreed on a no-deal outcome if the current agreement regarding the Irish Backstop remains in place.
"No to time limits or unilateral escape hatches or all these elaborate devices, glosses, codicils and so on that you could apply to the backstop," said Johnson on a debate yesterday, while Hunt said that "The backstop, as it is, is dead ... I don't think tweaking it with a time limit will do the trick, we've got to find a new way."