The UK labour market showed some signs of cooling as wage growth slowed for the first time in more than a year.

Average earnings growth excluding bonuses fell to 6.5pc from a year earlier, the ONS said.

That’s down from a record outside the pandemic of 6.7pc in the previous three-month period.

Job vacancies fell 51,000 in the quarter through February. The figures suggest an unprecedented series of Bank of England rate increases over the past year is starting to be felt in the labour market, where acute shortages of workers have driven up wages and fanned inflation.

The apparent loss of momentum may encourage speculation that official borrowing costs are close to peaking.

On Monday, traders slashed bets on where they see the tightening cycle ending after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US sent shock waves across global markets.

The Bank of England is now expected to deliver just a 25 basis-point hike, with a move later this month only partially priced in.

The labour market is the key metric being watched by the Bank in its battle to bring double-digit inflation back to the 2pc target.

That task, officials say, will be made harder if workers continue to bid up pay as firms will keep raising prices to cover their costs.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also called for wage restraint to help meet a government pledge to cut the rate of inflation in half this year from its current 10.1pc.

Those pleas have failed to avert strikes by hundreds of thousands of workers, mainly in the public sector, who are demanding their pay keeps pace with the fastest inflation in four decades. 

In January, 220,000 working days were lost to labor disputes, bringing the total since June to 1.1 million — the most since the late 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.

Strikes continued in February and action has escalated this week to coincide with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget on March 15, with walkouts by junior doctors, rail and London Underground workers, civil servants, teachers and university staff.