Wages, including bonus payments, rose by 1.7 per cent year-on-year in the three months to March, above the CPI inflation rate of 1.6 per cent in the same period.

The ONS figures also showed unemployment in the UK fell to its lowest level in five years during the first quarter.

The jobless number fell by 133,000 to 2.21 million compared with the previous three-month period.

There were 30.43 million people in work for January to March, 283,000 more than for October to December 2013 and 722,000 more than a year earlier.

The increases in employment were partly due to more self-employed people, the ONS said.