Unemployment falls while job openings hit a new high While the average annual salary rose by 7% in March, most workers saw a fifth consecutive month of declining living standards. Office for National Statistics data shows that without bonuses, workers saw an average 4.2% wage increase in the first three months of the year. However, this fell well short of the 7% inflation rate recorded in March. The report also revealed that the unemployment rate fell to 3.7%, the lowest since 1974. With job openings rising to a new high of 1.3m, it means there are more vacancies than unemployed people in the UK for the first time since records began. The number of UK workers on payrolls rose by 121,000 between March and April, hitting 29.5m. About 83,000 workers re-joined the jobs market in March, up from 10,000 in February. Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, noted: "Total employment, while up on the quarter, remains below its pre-pandemic level.” Commenting on the ONS figures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “It’s reassuring that fewer people are out of work than was previously feared, and we are helping them to keep more of their hard-earned money through tax cuts, changes to universal credit and support with household bills worth £22bn this financial year.”