A RECORD number of workers joined company payrolls in Bradford last month, figures reveal.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said an increase in payrolled staff across the UK was proof that the jobs market was “thriving”, but figures show wages are struggling to keep up with the increasing cost of living.

Office for National Statistics data shows an estimated 211,419 people in Bradford were on company payrolls in December.

That was 1,581 more than in November – the highest increase since records began in 2014.

The figure was also up from 201,013 in December 2020 and was above pre-pandemic levels – 204,921 workers were recorded on company payrolls in December 2019.

The number of workers on UK payrolls also jumped by a record 184,000 month-on-month, to 29.5 million.

The ONS cautioned the payroll figures, which do not include the self-employed, are early estimates which can be revised in future months.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said new survey figures showed the unemployment rate had also fallen back to pre-pandemic levels nationally.

He said: “Those reporting they’d recently been made redundant fell to their lowest since records began more than a quarter of a century ago.

“However, while job vacancies reached a new high in the last quarter of 2021, they are now growing more slowly than they were last summer.”

The data also shows the median monthly salary for payrolled workers in Bradford stood at £1,757 in December – broadly in line with the month before.

Separate figures show in the UK the average wage growth including bonuses was 4.2% in the three months to November.

However, with inflation hitting 5.1% in November, it means real wages failed to keep up with the rising cost of living for the first time since July 2020.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson blamed changes in the global economy for the cost of living crisis.

He said: “Globally we are seeing challenges caused by inflation and cost of living, particularly as the global economy emerges from the worst of the pandemic.”

Separate figures published by the ONS also show in the Bradford local authority area there was a fall in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits last month.

Around 25,375 people were on out-of-work benefits as of December 9, down by 5,425 from the month before.

It meant 7.6 per cent of the area's working population sought support in December.