- By Michael Race
- Business reporter, BBC News
Image source, Getty Images
Signs that the UK’s job market is slowing down have reaffirmed predictions that interest rates will be left unchanged again in November.
Figures showed the unemployment rate was 4.2% between June and August, up from 4% in the March-to-May quarter, but unchanged from September.
Businesses appear to be hiring less as the impact of rising prices and higher interest rates starts to bite.
UK economic growth has also proved sluggish in recent months.
The Bank of England, which sets UK rates, will decide next month whether they should be increased, decreased, or kept on hold again at 5.25%.
The benchmark rate was left unchanged at its last meeting in September, ending a cycle of 14 consecutive rises. At the time the Bank’s Governor, Andrew Bailey, said there were “increasing signs” that higher rates were starting to hurt the economy.
The Bank first started to raise rates in December 2021 in a bid to control soaring consumer price rises.
But it is a balancing act as…
