(Bloomberg) -- Britain is enduring the highest number of strikes since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, according to estimates by a group of economists.

Rail workers, nurses, ambulance drivers, postal delivery staff, bus drivers and civil servants are among those protesting for higher pay to offset the cost-of-living crisis. At the latest reading, UK inflation was 10.7%.

While most of the disputes have been dragging on for months, unions have planned a particularly intense round of walkouts in the run up to Christmas. Around 1.5 million working days will be lost to strikes in December, Capital Economics said, the highest monthly figure since July 1989.

More than half the working hours lost will come from Royal Mail staff, the estimates showed, with rail strikes the second most prolific.

The Office for National Statistics recently said 417,000 days were lost in October, the most since 2011. Still, the numbers are still considerably smaller than in the 1970s and early 1980s when peaks were often recorded of several million days lost.

GDP could take a 0.5% knock from the strikes, Capital Economics said. However, Ashley Webb, its UK economist, said the strikes were likely to have less of an effect due to activity simply being delayed or displaced to other areas. “While the strikes feel widespread, the direct effect on the economy will be small,” he said.

--With assistance from Eamon Akil Farhat and Andrew Atkinson.

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