Employment is growing in Bedford – but wages are not keeping up with inflation Bedford News

The number of workers on the company’s payroll in Bedford has continued to rise, according to new figures.

Unemployment in the UK has fallen to its lowest figure in 50 years, according to official data from the Office for National Statistics, although soaring prices are still hitting the pockets of people across the country, incomes will not unable to keep up with inflation.

In Bedford, 86,204 people were in paid employment in March, according to ONS figures.

This figure was up from 86,082 the previous month and 82,424 in March 2021.

At the start of the pandemic, 83,835 people were in salaried employment in the region.

Various figures show that in the UK the unemployment rate hit 3.8% in the three months to February – it hasn’t been below that figure since 1974.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Statistics show the continued strength of our labor market, with the number of employees on payroll rising again in March and unemployment falling further below pre-pandemic levels. “

However, the ONS said real pay was “falling significantly”, with regular wages excluding bonuses falling 1.8% after inflation in the three months to February, the biggest fall in almost nine years.

Labor called on Mr Sunak to ‘show the leadership the country needs’ amid the cost of living crisis, while Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the Chancellor n hadn’t done much to help the families in the current. climate.

“By holding down public sector wages and cutting Universal Credit, he made the crisis worse,” Ms O’Grady said.

“Families need help now. Whoever is Chancellor tomorrow should come to Parliament with an emergency budget to help meet rising energy bills and raise wages.”

Jack Leslie, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, called on the Chancellor to provide more support in the autumn budget, saying: “The sheer magnitude of this inflation-driven squeeze on living standards makes it all the more remarkable how little support the Chancellor provided in her spring statement”.

Mr Sunak acknowledged it was a “worrying time”, but highlighted the £22billion support the government is providing in 2022-23, including the household support fund.

Employment Minister Mims Davies added that the government is “doing everything it can to help”, including helping people get into better paid and better skilled work and raising the national wage and the minimum wage.

Separate figures from the ONS also show there has been a fall in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in the Bedford local authority area over the past year.

About 5,020 people were on unemployment benefits as of March 10, down 2,415 from 7,435 at the same time a year earlier.

This meant that 4.7% of the region’s working population sought help in March.

Figures include people aged 16-64 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and some Universal Credit claimants, who are unemployed and looking for work or who are employed but on low incomes .

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