Employment in Midlothian above pre-pandemic levels

Over 1,000 more workers were on company payrolls in Midlothian last month than before the coronavirus pandemic, new figures show.

Stock aerial shot of Midlothian.

But it comes as official figures show employees across the UK have seen the steepest fall in real wages for more than seven years, after earnings failed to keep up with price hikes.

Office for National Statistics figures show 45,421 people in Midlothian were on company payrolls in February. This was up from 44,307 in February 2020, before the pandemic, and 2,096 more than in the same month last year, when 43,325 people were on payrolls.

The number of workers on UK payrolls increased by 275,000 month-on-month, to 29.7 million.

Different ONS figures show average earnings rose by 3.8 per cent in the three months to January. But they failed to keep up with price increases due to record inflation that month, meaning they fell by one per cent in real terms – the steepest decline seen since 2014.

In April, bills are expected to rise by more than 50 per cent for the average household when the energy price cap rises.