REGULAR pay fell at the sharpest rate on record between April and June, official figures have shown. 

When taking into account rising prices, wages dropped by 3%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. 

Household budgets are being hit by the cost of living crisis which has led to soaring energy bills as well as higher food and fuel costs. 

The rise in prices has fuelled the UK inflation rate to a 40-year high with figures due to be released on Wednesday expected to show a further increase. 

READ MORE: How does inflation affect me as Bank of England raises it to 1.75 per cent

Director of economic statistics at the ONS Darren Morgan said the “real value” of pay was continuing to fall. 

He said: “Excluding bonuses, it is still dropping faster than at any time since comparable records began in 2001.”

The ONS confirmed that growth in regular pay, excluding bonuses, was 4.7% in April to June 2022. 

Excluding the pandemic, this represents the fastest growth in 15 years but once inflation was taken into account over the year, wages fell by a record 3%.

The data also revealed that quarterly job vacancies fell for the first time since 2020 to 1.274 million. 

Though the ONS points out that since vacancies fell to an all-time low between April to June 2020 in the early months of the Covid pandemic, they have increased by 945,000.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has increased to 3.8% for the same quarter compared to 3.7% with the previous period. 

Morgan continued: “The number of people in work grew in the second quarter of 2022, whilst the headline rates of unemployment and of people neither working nor looking for a job were little changed. 

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon reveals cost-of-living package, saying inaction will cost lives

“Meanwhile, the total number of hours worked each week appears to have stabilised very slightly below pre-pandemic levels.

“Redundancies are still at very low levels. 

“However, although the number of job vacancies remains historically very high, it fell for the first time since the summer of 2020.”

Morgan said the statistics showed the "impact the cost of living crisis is having across the economy and for people".

He continued: "While this crisis is being driven by high energy prices, the impact isn't confined to energy bills. Prices in the shops are soaring as the value of working people's wages is falling. 

"We are facing a crisis this winter where people will be forced to choose between freezing and starving, we need to see radical and urgent government intervention in the scale of the pandemic or the 2008 financial crisis. 

"Meanwhile people who are struggling can get advice from their local Citizens Advice Bureau."