UK wages grow rapidly as firms scramble for staff after Covid lockdown

The number of job vacancies surged by 290,000, or 44%, to 953,000 from May to July. File photo

UK wage growth hit a record as companies posted more than a million new job vacancies for the first time in an unprecedented scramble for staff following the loosening of lockdown rules.

Average earnings in the three months through June surged a record 8.8% from a year earlier, the UK's Office for National Statistics said. While the figure partly reflects distortions created by the pandemic, underlying wage pressures are also gathering pace.