Official data shows longest fall in living standards for 50 years
▻http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/31/official-longest-fall-wages-living-standards-50-years
A report from the Office for National Statistics found that real wages have been falling consistently since 2010, the longest such period since at least 1964, when comparable records began. Statisticians put the deterioration down to several factors such as a change in the number of hours people work as well as a fall in productivity.
[...] The ONS said this latest period of falling real wages appeared to be the latest stage in a series of “step-changes in annual real wage growth, usually taking place in response to an economic downturn” – from an average growth of 2.9% in the 1970s and 1980s, to growth of 1.5% in the 1990s, 1.2% in the 2000s, and then -2.2% since the start of 2010.