U.K. unemployment rate rose in December; wage growth slowe in World Economy News 18/02/2026 The U.K. unemployment rate edged higher in December while wage growth moderated, data showed Tuesday, suggesting a further softening in the U.K. labor market, pressuring the Bank of England to further cut interest rates next month. According to the Office for National Statistics, the climbed to 5.2% in the three months to December, up from 5.1% the prior month, and the highest level since early 2021. At the same time, across the whole economy, excluding bonuses, fell to an annual 4.2% rate in the three months to December, a sharp drop from the 4.5% level seen the prior month. “If these trends persist into the March data, a Bank of England rate cut next month looks increasingly likely,” said analysts at ING, in a note. At its February meeting, the held its Bank Rate at 3.75% in a knife-edge 5–4 vote — the third straight narrowly split decision by the Monetary Policy Committee. “The lack of green shoots of recovery in the labor market and further fall in wage growth supports the idea that the Bank of England has at least a couple more interest rate cuts in its locker, with the chances of the next cut happening in March rather than April edging higher,” said analysts at Capital Economics, in a note. Source: Investing.com 2026-02-18 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share