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Real wages continue to fall in the UK

David Blanchflower and Stephen Machin


Real wages continue to fall - in the UK and elsewhere - yet despite this striking feature of the labour market, some commentators anticipate resurgent pay growth in the near future. This report, the first in a new series of CEP Real Wages Updates, argues that the absence of any improvement in the country's productivity performance - together with evidence that nominal wage growth is flatlining and real wage growth is falling - make it highly unlikely that wage growth is about to explode upwards.


7 October 2015     Paper Number CEPRWU001

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