'as the country suffers its longest recession since World War 2'

LONDON (Reuters) - The jobs market has turned out to be stronger than expected given the scale of the recession, Bank of England chief economist Spencer Dale said on Monday.

 

The economy is expected to shrink by 4.75 percent this year as the country suffers its longest recession since World War 2. While unemployment has risen, it is unlikely to top 3 million next year as many experts had predicted.

 

In the foreword to the central bank's Quarterly Bulletin, Dale said: "A marked feature of the response of our economy to the current recession is that employment to date has not fallen by as much as we might have feared given the falls in output."

 

He suggested that this might reflect a greater degree of flexibility in the wages compared with previous downturns.

 

"A substantial element of the workforce appears to have been able to protect their jobs by accepting slower wage growth," he said.