WORKERS are celebrating a wages boost after average earnings soared during the summer months.
Latest Office for National Statistics figures also show unemployment fell by 23,000 to 1.31million in the three months to September.
During the same period, average earnings, excluding bonuses, increased by 3.6 per cent.
That compared with 3.8 per cent growth in the previous month. It took average weekly pay before tax to £470.
A spike in the number of foreign workers drove employment to hit record levels last year, according to separate analysis.
Migration Watch UK found a rise of nearly 250,000 non-UK-born workers in the past year — the third highest level ever.
This was made up of a rise of 157,000 workers from outside the EU and 81,000 others from Europe.
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “Worryingly, both the Conservatives and Labour are proposing policies that will likely boost these numbers and in Labour’s case, turbo-charge them.
“That is senseless. It’s time politicians gave serious thought to pressing employers to focus more on training our own, raising wages and improving conditions, rather than relying on cheaper, and perhaps more malleable, overseas workers.”