Main labour market statistics time series data (large dataset).

Labour market statistics summary data table, including earnings, employment, unemployment, redundancies and vacancies, Great Britain and UK, published monthly.

In the 3rd quarter of 2025, the employment rate in the United Kingdom was 75 percent, down from 75.3 percent in the previous quarter. After almost dropping to 70.1 percent in 2011, the employment rate in the United Kingdom started to climb at a relatively fast pace, peaking in early 2020. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, employment declined to 74.6 percent by January 2021. Although not quite at pre-pandemic levels, the employment rate has since recovered. Labor market trouble in 2025? Although unemployment in the UK spiked at 5.3 percent in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it fell throughout most of 2022, to just 3.6 percent in August 2022. Around that time, the number of job vacancies in the UK was also at quite high levels, reaching a peak of 1.3 million by May 2022. The strong labor market put employees in quite a strong position, perhaps encouraging the high number of resignations that took place around that time. Since 2023, however, the previously hot labor market has cooled, with unemployment reaching 4.6 percent in April 2025 and job vacancies falling to a four-year low of 736,000 in May 2025. Furthermore, the number of employees on UK payrolls has fallen by 227,500 in the first five months of the year, indicating that 2025 will be a tough one for the labor market. Headline economic measures revised in early 2025 Along with the unemployment rate, the UK's inflation rate is also expected to be higher than initially thought in 2025, reaching a rate of 3.2 percent for the year. The economy will also grow at a slower pace of one percent rather than the initial prediction of two percent. Though these negative trends are not expected to continue in the long term, the current government has already expended significant political capital on unpopular decisions, such as the cutting of Winter Fuel Payments to pensioners in 2024. As of June 2025, they are almost as unpopular as the previous government, with a net approval rating of -52 percent.

There were almost 34.2 million people employed in the United Kingdom in the three months to September 2025. In general, the number of people employed has consistently increased, with noticeable dips in employment occurring in 2008 due to the global financial crisis and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Labor market hot streak in 2022 Although there was a sharp increase in the UK's unemployment rate in the aftermath of COVID-19, the UK labor market bounced back forcefully after this sudden shock. By the middle of 2022, the UK's unemployment rate had recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while the number of job vacancies in the UK reached record highs. Wage growth was, by this point, growing at a much slower rate than inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. In the two years since this peak, the UK labor market has cooled slightly, with unemployment reaching 4.4 percent by December 2024 and the number of job vacancies falling to the lowest figures since May 2021. Characteristics of UK workers As of 2024, the majority of UK workers were working in the private sector, at over 27.6 million workers. In the same year, the size of the UK's public sector workforce stood at approximately 6.1 million, with over two million of these people working for the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and a further 1.66 million in the public education sector. In the UK's private sector, the industry sector that employed the most people was wholesale and retail, which had a workforce of over 4.9 million people, followed by administrative and support service roles at around 3.1 million.

Employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, claimant count, average earnings, vacancies and labour disputes statistics. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: LMS

This monthly compendium of statistics and articles on the Labour Market was been replaced by the Economic and Labour Market Review. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: LMT

Employment by industry and sex, UK, published quarterly, non-seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

An essential resource for all users of UK economic and labour market statistics. It draws together the expert research and analysis and range of content found in Economic Trends and Labour Market Trends to build an up-to-date, comprehensive and unique statistical picture of the UK economy and labour market. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: ELMR

Official statistics on employment, unemployment, inactivity, jobs and the Claimant Count for regions, local authorities and parliamentary constituencies. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Regional Labour Market Statistics

As of the third quarter of 2025, the employment rate in the United Kingdom was highest among 35 to 49-year-old's, with ** percent of that age group employed. In the same quarter, approximately **** percent of over 65s were employed, a peak for this provided time period, while the employment rate for 16 to 24s was **** percent, one of the lowest rates for this age group.

Labour Market Statistics for Northern Ireland (employment, unemployment).

Source agency: Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Northern Ireland)

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Labour Market Statistics Quarterly Supplement

Unemployment numbers and rates for those aged 16 or over. The unemployed population consists of those people out of work, who are actively looking for work and are available to start immediately.

Unemployed numbers and rates also shown for equalities groups, by age, sex, ethnic group, and disability. Economic inactivity rates and numbers for regions.

The data are taken from the Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey, produced by the Office for National Statistics.

The data are produced monthly on a rolling quarterly basis. The month shown is the month the quarter ends on.

International Labour Organization define unemployed people as: without a job, want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next 2 weeks, or, out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next 2 weeks.

The figures in this dataset are adjusted to compensate for seasonal variations in employment (Seasonally adjusted).

Data by equalities groups has a longer time lag and is only available quarterly from the Annual Population Survey, which is not seasonally adjusted.

Click http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-labour/regional-labour-market-statistics/index.html">here for Regional labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics

Click http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/index.html">here for Labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics

Annual statistics on employment, unemployment and inactivity for different ethnic groups from 1993 to 2015, with further breakdowns by gender and age. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/labour-market-status-by-ethnic-group-statistics Source agency: Work and Pensions Designation: Experimental Official Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Labour Market Status by Ethnic Group