Britain’s labour market cooled again in July, with Office for National Statistics figures showing the number of employees on company payrolls fell by a provisional 8,000 from June. The drop—smaller than the revised 26,000 decrease recorded the previous month—marked a sixth straight monthly decline. Job vacancies fell by 44,000 in the three months to July to 718,000, the lowest level since early 2021. Despite the slowdown in hiring, wage pressures persisted. Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses rose 5.0% in the three months to June, unchanged from the previous reading and well above the roughly 3% pace the Bank of England associates with its 2% inflation goal. Pay growth in the private sector eased slightly to 4.8%. Employers have blamed a £26 billion rise in labour taxes introduced in April by Chancellor Rachel Reeves for constraining headcount while pushing up pay demands. The mixed signals leave monetary-policy makers with a dilemma. The Bank of England trimmed its benchmark rate by a quarter-point to 4% last week in a narrow 5-4 vote, but officials stressed that further easing will hinge on evidence that wage growth is moderating. Sterling edged higher after the latest data, and money-markets now fully price the next rate cut only in early 2026. The unemployment rate held at 4.7%, the highest since 2021, while the inactivity rate fell to its lowest since the start of the pandemic.