Unemployment Rate in the United Kingdom remained unchanged at 4.40 percent in January. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate for people of white ethnicity in the United Kingdom was 3.6 percent, the lowest of the provided ethnic groups in this quarter. By contrast, the unemployment rate for people in the Pakistani ethnic group was 10.7 percent.

Bias or prejudice at the recruitment stage, were the main barriers that young black people faced going into employment in the United Kingdom, according to a survey conducted in September 2020. More than half of respondents also advised that lack of diversity in leadership was one of the main barriers that they faced, while 50 percent said that workplaces not being diverse was also a factor.

Labour market status by ethnic group, UK, published quarterly, non-seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

Young people from the Chinese (4.5%) and Indian (7.3%) ethnic groups were less likely than the UK average (11.5%) to be not in employment, education or training.

Among European Union countries in December 2024, Spain had the highest unemployment rate at 10.6 percent, followed by Greece at 9.4 percent. By contrast, Czechia has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, at 2.6 percent. The overall rate of unemployment in the European Union was 5.9 percent in the same month - a historical low-point for unemployment in the EU, which had been at over 10 percent for much of the 2010s.

In 2022, the highest and lowest rates of economic inactivity were in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi (33%) and white 'other’ (15%) ethnic groups.

In 2020, cumulative South African emigrants amounted to roughly 915,000. The vast majority settled in the United Kingdom (around 247,000), followed by Australia (nearly 200,000). Together, the two countries constituted roughly 49 percent of the total South African migrants living abroad. Moreover, the third major country of destination for South Africans was the United States, with about 117,000 people living there. Overall, the 21 countries presented covered 94.4 percent of all South African migrants.

Language: a primary driver of emigration destinations

Language is a factor that helps ease communication and integration for individuals within a new society. Noticeably, the five leading destinations for South African emigrants had English as an official language. In South Africa, English was the second most spoken language outside households. Furthermore, the Netherlands ranked seventh, which language can also justify. Afrikaans, a language developed from 17th-century Dutch, was the third most spoken language among households in South Africa.

Unemployment a major worry and prevalent among youth    

A real worry for South Africans in 2022 was unemployment. As of April 2022, 64 percent of the respondents of a survey reported concern regarding the job market and the unemployment situation in the country. As of the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate among the age groups 15-24 years and 25-34 years was significantly higher than the rest, reaching 63.9 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively.