UK April jobs and March wages data 17 May

  • 2.3% prev
  • weekly earnings 3mth/yy ex-bonus 2.1% as exp/prev
  • Output per hour -main measure of labour productivity - fell by 0.5% in Quarter 1 (January to March) 2017. This compares with growth of 0.4% in Quarter 4 (October to December) 2016
  • jobless claims change 19.4k vs 7.5k exp vs 33.5k prev up from 25.5k
  • claimant count rate 2.3%
  • unemployment rate 3month 4.6% vs 4.7% exp/prev

Better jobs data but wages showing no real signs of improvement, so limited price reaction in GBP pairs but rallying overall for the moment. Productivity, a key focus also for BOE is not exactly on fire though.

GBPUSD 1.2935 EURGBP 0.8571

Full reports from ONS here

Next cab off the rank EZ CPI at the top of the hour.