What has happened to earnings since 2019?

It has been a tough few years for labour market statistics. The COVID-19 pandemic made the collection and interpretation of data on jobs and pay extremely challenging. Many surveys found it harder to reach respondents. Those that relied on face-to-face interviewing had to switch to telephone or online modes. Different sorts of people or firms seemed to respond to surveys when compared with pre-pandemic times, making it hard to be sure whether the trends these data sources were picking up reflected actual changes in the labour market. More concerningly still, these problems do not appear to have entirely dissipated as the pandemic has passed.