Annual British paypacket growth slowed more than expected to its weakest pace since last December in the three months to July, showing a tight labour market is still not generating strong wage inflation.
The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics today, also showed a drop in the internationally-recognised measure of the jobless rate to 4.7 per cent, its lowest since records began 20 years ago.
The data are likely to be welcomed by policymakers who don't want the strongest labour market in Britain in decades to create inflationary pressures in the broader economy.
The ONS said average earnings in the three months to July rose just 3.8 per cent on a year ago, compared with 4.3 per cent in the prior three month period. That was also a half a percentage point lower than market expectations.
But earnings excluding bonuses - which the ONS said were weaker this year compared with the three month period to July last year and are a better measure of underlying wage inflation, - rose 4.2 per cent, flat against the three months to June.
"We're seeing a significant deceleration in the headline average earnings growth rate, which adds to the more benign inflation picture," said Ms Audrey Childe-Freeman, senior economist at CIBC World Markets.
Bond markets and short sterling interest rate futures gained on those much weaker than expected headline figures as they appeared to reduce the chances of another BoE interest rate hike in the near term.
The claimant count measure of unemployment fell for the 15th straight month, down 6,100 in August, although that was less than the 9,000 fall the market had expected and compared with a fall of 12,600 in July.
The claimant count measure of unemployment remained steady at 2.7 per cent in August.
But the internationally-recognised ILO measure of the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 per cent in the three months to July from 4.8 per cent, matching its lowest since records began in 1984.
Britain has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe. Only four other countries in the 25 countries that make up the European Union have a lower rate -Ireland, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg.