{"id":234731,"date":"2019-10-15T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=234731"},"modified":"2019-10-15T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:28:07","slug":"uk-labour-market-weakening-amid-brexit-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/15\/uk-labour-market-weakening-amid-brexit-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"UK labour market weakening amid Brexit uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the economy barely growing over the past few months, the Office for National Statistics says the labour market is now reflecting that slowdown. (Shutterstock photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LONDON \u2014 Brexit uncertainty appears to be finally affecting Britain’s labour market, which has been resilient over the past three years in spite of a slowdown in economic growth.<\/p>\n

With the scheduled Brexit deadline of Oct. 31 looming, it’s increasingly clear that firms are beginning to hold back on hiring, according to official figures released Tuesday. A number of Brexit scenarios remain in play, including a deal between Britain and the European Union, an extension to the departure, another referendum, and even a disorderly and chaotic exit.<\/p>\n

With the economy barely growing over the past few months, the Office for National Statistics says the labour market is now reflecting that slowdown.<\/p>\n

It said the number of people in work dropped by 56,000 in the three months to August from the previous three-month period, to 32.69 million. That’s the biggest decline since the spring of 2015.<\/p>\n

The number of people unemployed rose by 22,000 during the period to 1.31 million, lifting the jobless rate to 3.9% from 3.8%. Job vacancies were at their lowest for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

In another sign of weakness, annual earnings growth including bonuses slowed to 3.8% in the three months to August, from the 3.9% recorded in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Brexit-related slump in corporate confidence finally has taken its toll on the labour market,\u201d said Samuel Tombs, chief U.K. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.<\/p>\n

Since Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, the labour market has been strong as firms have opted to cut investment rather than staff. However, a decline in confidence in the past few months as the country grapples with Brexit seems to be taking its toll.<\/p>\n

Some of the uncertainty could be lifted in coming days if Prime Minister Boris Johnson secures a Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU. Should lawmakers back a deal, Britain could finally leave the EU by the scheduled Brexit data at the end of this month or slightly later.<\/p>\n

Though the long-term trading relationship with the EU would still need to be negotiated, a near-term Brexit deal would mean Britain avoids a chaotic exit involving the imposition of tariffs and other impediments to trade with the EU, a scenario most economists think would lead to recession.<\/p>\n

In its half-yearly World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the British economy would see growth pick up next year if a Brexit deal is agreed upon.<\/p>\n

It predicted that the British economy would grow 1.2% this year and 1.4% next, unchanged from its April forecasts and ahead of its forecasts for France and Germany. The IMF’s forecasts are based on an orderly Brexit from the EU.<\/p>\n

Many British lawmakers are looking to stop Brexit altogether and hope to muster enough votes to call for another referendum on EU membership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Brexit uncertainty appears to be finally affecting Britain’s labour market, which has been resilient over the past three …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":199061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,16,43,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news","category-stock-markets","category-news-w","mauthors-pan-pylas","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234732,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234731\/revisions\/234732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}