19th March 2009, 09:39 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle
Inflation was 3% before the cut in VAT and is now under 2%. There is a possibility that deflation might occur. Fuel prices are down massively. Mortgages are cheaper and there are deals on everything.
Where are you getting your figures from? They don't match the Office of National Statistics. It's either 0.1% or 3.0% depending which figure you use. The government use the latter.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=19
While I have sympathy for small businesses, and know that many engineering consultancies have frozen wages, freezing wages would be a disaster for many archaeologists. 'Benchmarking the profession' found that archaeologists needed a 13-53% pay rise to get pay to the same level as comparable professions. Small businesses would be getting a bargain if there is a 3% pay rise. I also find it slightly ridiculous that you say mortgages are cheaper, yet you must know many archaeologists are not in a position to get a mortgage and even if they were, they would not get one on a temporary/fixed term contract in the current climate. Incidentally six of the nine current job postings are temporary/fixed term.