{
  "title": "United Kingdom: Selected Issues",
  "publication": "IMF Staff Country Reports, February 13, 2018",
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  "summary": "This Selected Issues paper on the United Kingdom finds that the main factors behind the slowdown include weak productivity growth, labor market slack, and low inflation. Recent labor market developments in the United Kingdom appear to point to disconnect between unemployment and wages.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Key findings",
      "content": "- Main factors behind the slowdown: weak productivity growth, labor market slack, and low inflation.\n- Labor market disconnect: the unemployment rate has fallen to a 40-year low, yet wage growth continues to grow at a subdued pace.\n- Broader measures of underemployment—accounting for involuntary part-time unemployment, inactive and self-employed people seeking regular jobs—suggest that slack in the labor market was higher than implied by the unemployment rate in recent years.\n- Persistent weak productivity growth and well-anchored inflation expectations help explain the disconnect between low unemployment and subdued wage growth.\n- Persistent tightness of the labor market should prompt some firming of wage growth in the coming year, everything else equal.\n- A mild increase in unit labor costs would help bring domestically generated inflation in line with the inflation target."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Labor market analysis",
      "content": "- Headline unemployment rate: fallen to a 40-year low.\n- Wage dynamics: wage growth remains subdued despite low unemployment.\n- Underemployment components considered: involuntary part-time unemployment; inactive people seeking work; self-employed people seeking regular jobs.\n- Implication: effective labor market slack is greater than suggested by the headline unemployment rate, moderating wage pressure."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy implications and outlook",
      "content": "- Expectation: some firming of wage growth in the coming year if labor market tightness persists.\n- Policy signal: a mild increase in unit labor costs can support bringing domestically generated inflation back toward the inflation target."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Publication metadata",
      "content": "- Pages: 45\n- Series: Country Report No. 2018/043\n- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484341759.002\n\nUnited Kingdom: Selected Issues, IMF Staff Country Reports 2018, 043 (2018).\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Country Report\n  - Country Report (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Country Report (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}"
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    "Published: February 13, 2018",
    "Series: IMF Staff Country Reports",
    "DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484341759.002",
    "Main factors behind the slowdown: weak productivity growth, labor market slack, and low inflation.",
    "Broader measures of underemployment—accounting for involuntary part-time unemployment, inactive and self-employed people seeking regular jobs—suggest that slack in the labor market was higher than implied by the unemployment rate in recent years.",
    "Persistent weak productivity growth and well-anchored inflation expectations help explain the disconnect between low unemployment and subdued wage growth.",
    "Persistent tightness of the labor market should prompt some firming of wage growth in the coming year, everything else equal.",
    "A mild increase in unit labor costs would help bring domestically generated inflation in line with the inflation target.",
    "Headline unemployment rate: fallen to a 40-year low.",
    "Wage dynamics: wage growth remains subdued despite low unemployment.",
    "Underemployment components considered: involuntary part-time unemployment; inactive people seeking work; self-employed people seeking regular jobs.",
    "Implication: effective labor market slack is greater than suggested by the headline unemployment rate, moderating wage pressure.",
    "Expectation: some firming of wage growth in the coming year if labor market tightness persists.",
    "Policy signal: a mild increase in unit labor costs can support bringing domestically generated inflation back toward the inflation target.",
    "Pages: 45",
    "Series: Country Report No. 2018/043",
    "DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484341759.002",
    "**Country Report**"
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