UK real wages and productivity down, says ONS

ONS figures show a 0.5% drop in real wages in the three months leading up to June.

Earnings growth was 2.1% higher than in the same months of 2016, and up from 2.0% in the three months to May and a recent low of 1.8% in April.

However, despite the acceleration in earnings growth, living standards remained under pressure because pay has failed to keep pace with inflation, which stood at 2.6% in June.

ONS figures also show productivity in the UK fell for a second successive quarter in the three months to June.

Output per hour, the main measure of labour productivity, declined by 0.1% in the second quarter. The fall, which follows a 0.5% decline in the first quarter, marks the worst run of productivity declines since 2012.