Wage pressures in the UK economy appeared to diminish in May as the number of people employed across the whole economy fell by its largest amount in over twelve years, official figures showed today. The office of National Statistics revealed that headline earnings, which include bonus payments, rose by 4.1 pct in the three months to May from the previous year, down 0.5 percentage points on the rate in April, and below expectations of a 4.3 pct increase. The May rate was the lowest since October 2004, when it also rose by 4.1 pct. Stripping out bonuses, average earnings in the three months to May rose by 4.0, down 0.1 percentage point on April and below expectations of a 4.2 pct rise. The May rate was the lowest since March 2004, when it also rose by 4.0 pct. The earnings data may ease concerns on the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee that higher earnings may stoke up wider inflationary pressures in the economy. In recent months, the BoE's governor Mervyn King, has fretted about the inflationary impact from a tight labour market and today's data may cement expectations that the MPC will cut its key repo rate by a quarter point next month to 4.50 pct, its first reduction in over two years. The moderation in earnings pressure may reflect the fact that total employment in the economy fell 72,000 to 28.57 mln over the three months to May. Over the year employment was up by 184,000. The quarterly fall in employment occurred entirely within the under 35 age group and is the largest decline since the three months to Feb 1993, when it fell by 131,000. Elsewhere, today's data shows the claimant count measure of unemployment rising for the fifth consecutive month in June, the longest spell of increases since December 1992. The number of people claiming job-seeker's allowance increased 8,800 in June to 864,900. In May the claimant count increased by an upwardly revised 14,000.