London's Economy Today - Issue 170 - October 2016

The overview

• Pound drops as economic fears mount about a ‘hard Brexit’.
• UK Inflation rises in September with further rises likely.
• Mixed but on balance positive signals on London’s economy.

Economic indicators

• New orders in London are rising with the PMI for new orders recorded at 55.0 in September 2016 compared to 53.5 in August 2016.
• Surveyors expect house prices to fall in London, but rise in England and Wales with the net house price expectations balance in London at -11 in September 2016 while for England and Wales, the net house price expectations balance was 14 in September 2016.
• Consumer confidence is positive in London but remains negative for the UK as a whole with the consumer confidence score at 6 for Greater London in September 2016, up from 0 in August 2016 while for the UK, the consumer confidence score rose to -1 in September 2016, up from -7 in August 2016.

London’s Economy Today supplement: Earning a living? Revealing London’s industrial economy

• Many of London’s industrial sectors have grown rapidly in terms of number of jobs; however, average real earnings have in fact declined between 2009 and 2015.
• The number of jobs in Manufacturing in London approximately halved between 1996 and 2015, decreasing by 135,000 (-51.1 per cent); Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, in comparison, has seen its number of jobs in London increase by 366,000 (91.7 per cent) over the same period.
• About half of workers in Accommodation and Food Services, and Retail were earning less than the London Living Wage – which is “the wage rate needed to give a worker in London enough to provide their family with the essentials of life, including a cushion against unforeseen events".