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UK wage growth continued to lag behind the rising cost of living between October and December, figures show.

Wages rose, but when taking inflation into account, pay showed a 0.8% fall from a year earlier, BBC News reported, citing the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Latest figures also show that the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% while job vacancies hit a fresh record high.

There are signs that these pressures might feed through to faster wage growth in the coming months.

According to the ONS, employees' regular pay, excluding bonuses, grew by 3.7% between October and December from a year earlier - which is high compared with rates seen over the last decade.

However, the rising cost of food, energy and household goods has pushed inflation up by 5.4% in the 12 months to December. The ONS said real wages in the October to December period fell by 0.8% from a year earlier.

The Bank of England has warned this squeeze on workers will get worse, with inflation set to rise above 7% this year.

But the ONS said early estimates suggest employers are starting to push up wages further and faster in response.

It said that for workers on payrolls in January, median monthly wages increased by 6.3% compared with the same month last year, and they were 10.3% higher than before the pandemic in February 2020.

Employers are having to increase salaries as they face a continuing shortage of workers.

Meanwhile the number of job vacancies between November and January hit another record of 1.3 million, the ONS said, with most industries finding it harder to recruit.