Wage pressures in the UK economy appeared to have been relatively well-contained in June as employment levels fell for the second consecutive month, official figures showed today The Office of National Statistics revealed that headline earnings, which include bonus payments, rose 4.2 pct in the three months to June from the previous year.This was 0.1 percentage point higher than the May rate but in line with market expectations Stripping out bonuses, average earnings in the three months to June rose by 4.0 pct, unchanged on the May rate and 0.1 percentage points below market expectations. The earnings data are likely to further ease concerns on the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee that higher wages may stoke wider inflationary pressures in the economy The MPC, which is charged to keep CPI inflation at 2.0 pct on a two-year horizon, gets increasingly concerned when underlying earnings rise by 4.5 pct or more Despite its concerns, the BoE cut its key repo rate a quarter point to 4.50 pct earlier this month -- its first rate reduction for over two years. One of the main reasons behind the move was faltering growth, which in recent months appears to have to hit employment levels in the economy. Further details of today's labour market report show that total employment fell 16,000 in the three months to June from the previous three months to 28.59 mln. This is the first time in a year that employment has fallen in two consecutive months. However, on a year-on-year basis, employment was up 216,000 Elsewhere, the claimant count measure increased by 2,800 in July from the previous month, taking the total up to 866,000, its highest level since April 2004. Though this was slightly below expectations of a 10,000 increase, it was the sixth consecutive increase in the number claiming job-seekers allowance and represents the longest spell of increases since December 1992 The claimant count series is more timely as it takes less time to compile than other measuures because it comes from administrative data as opposed to survey data The wider ILO measure of unemployment showed unemployment in the three months to June rose 27,000, taking the total to 1.423 mln, and the rate up 0.1 percentage points to 4.7 pct One area that continues to shed labour is the manufacturing sector, which saw employment fall by 86,000, or 2.6 pct, in the three months to June compared with a year earlier, to 3.20 mln