Week of 19 October 2026

On 20 October the ONS (Office for National Statistics, the UK's official statistics body) published its monthly look at jobs and pay. Average regular pay (pay before tax, leaving out bonuses) was 3.7% higher in June to August 2026 than a year earlier. Prices rose too, so the ONS also works out real pay. After adjusting for inflation using CPI, regular pay grew 0.8%; using CPIH, which also counts the housing costs of people who own their home, it grew 0.6%. The unemployment rate was 4.7%, down 0.1 percentage points on the quarter. But employers are looking for fewer new workers. There were an estimated 691,000 vacancies in July to September, 21,000 fewer than in the three months before and 37,000 fewer than a year earlier. Outside the coronavirus pandemic, the last time there were 691,000 or fewer was in July to September 2014. The ONS says feedback from its survey "continues to suggest that smaller firms may not be recruiting because of increases in labour costs".

On 14 October the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority, the UK's competition and consumer watchdog) fined three businesses more than £6 million in total for misleading sales tactics. Wayfair was fined £4.8 million. It advertised products as "Daily Deals" and 24-hour "Flash Deals", with countdown timers, but many stayed at the same price or lower after the deadline. Appliances Direct was fined £1.2 million for countdown banners offering discounts for a limited time, when the same discount codes appeared again and again over many days, and for automatically opting customers into paid extras, such as taking away their old appliance. It must refund around £432,000. Gold's Gym, which runs four gyms in London, was fined £45,000 for leaving its joining fee out of the total price, and must refund £9,220 to 726 customers. All three admitted breaking the law and settled early, which cut each fine by 40%. Customers due a refund don't need to do anything. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the CMA can fine a business up to 10% of its worldwide turnover (its total sales) for breaking consumer law.

THG, the Manchester company that owns Myprotein and the beauty website Lookfantastic, published an update on 15 October covering July to September. Myprotein branded unit volumes (the number of Myprotein-branded items sold) increased 36.2% on a year earlier. Revenue (money from sales) grew far less at THG Nutrition, the part of THG led by Myprotein: it was £152.4m, up 3.7%, or 5.3% on the measure THG uses throughout its update, which leaves out exchange-rate changes and businesses it no longer runs. Across the whole company, reported revenue rose 0.9% to £408.8m. THG says about £3m of advent calendars sold in September weren't dispatched until October, after problems at a new supplier. Even so, it raised its expectation for this year's adjusted EBITDA (a profit figure it works out itself) to £103m, ahead of the consensus of £101.7m. It also says the price of WPC80, a key ingredient in whey protein, has fallen about 20% since 10 September.