Pay deals stuck at 3%

With figures from the Labour Research Department's (LRD) Payline database for February revised to 3.0% and figures for March also at 3.0%, there has been no movement in the main three-monthly pay figure for over a year.

In the latest three-monthly period the public sector bucked the trend with a median of 3.5%, whilst the service sector was also slightly ahead of the overall settlements figure with a midpoint of 3.1%.

For the payround as a whole from August 2002 through to March 2003, the only variation from 3.0% is the public sector with a median of 3.4%.

Other pay analysts' figures are similar. Incomes Data Services report a median for the first quarter of 2003 of 3%, whilst at Industrial Relations Services (IRS) the median for the whole economy in the three months to March was slightly lower at 2.9%. The only variation within IRS's figures from 2.9% was the private sector services median of 3%.

The main employers' organisation, the Confederation of British Industry, reports average settlements in the three months to January of 2.7% for manufacturing but 3% for service sector awards. They have medians for the fourth quarter of 2002 of 2.5% for manufacturing and 3% for services.

Prices in the year to March rose by 3.0%, slightly down on the 3.1% increase in the year to February. Underlying inflation (excluding mortgage interest payments) was steady at 3.0%.