In the three months to October 2025, there were approximately 723,000 job vacancies in the UK, down from 722,000 in September 2025, and the period with the fewest number of job vacancies since April 2021. The number of job vacancies in the United Kingdom reached a record high of 1.3 million in the three months to May 2022, with the number of vacancies steadily falling since then. During the provided time period, the number of job vacancies fell to its lowest levels in the months leading to June 2020, at just 328,000, at the height of COVID-19 restrictions. Tight labor market beginning to loosen After weathering the economic storm of COVID-19, the UK labor market was reasonably healthy between 2021 and 2024. An economic trend dubbed "The Great Resignation" saw the UK record 446,000 resignations in the second quarter of 2022, with many likely encouraged by the strong labor market at the time. Since that point, however, the UK unemployment rate has steadily crept up, reaching a post-pandemic high of five percent in September 2025. Which industries are experiencing staff shortages? The percentage of businesses reporting a staff shortage in the UK reached 15.7 percent in September 2022, before falling to just 7.5 percent as of October 2025, another indication of a loosening labor market. According to data from that month, approximately 18 percent of businesses in the education sector had a shortage of staff, the highest of any industry. Education was followed by accommodation and food services, with 13.6 percent of businesses in this sector reporting a staff shortage.

Approximately 14.1 percent of people aged 16 to 24 were unemployed in the United Kingdom in the second quarter of 2025, the highest of any age group in that month. During this time period, older age groups have had much lower unemployment rates than younger ones, who have consistently had the highest unemployment rate. For almost all the age groups, the peak in the unemployment rate was recorded in 2011 when almost a quarter of young working age people were unemployed. Young adults in the labor market In the provided time period, youth unemployment was at its lowest rate in the third quarter of 2022, when it was 10.3 percent. Since then, there has been a noticeable uptick in youth unemployment, which was 14.8 percent towards the end of 2024. A more long-term trend among this age group is the increase in economic inactivity, with 40.8 percent of 16 to 24-year-old's not in work or actively looking for work in 2024. Although students or people in training account for a high share of this economic inactivity, there has also been a rise in the proportion of young adults who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), which reached a ten-year-high of 13.2 percent in late 2024. Unemployment up from low baseline in late 2024 In 2022, the UK labor market, had very low levels of unemployment along with a record number of job vacancies. Throughout 2023 and 2024, this very tight labor market began to loosen, although is still quite low by historic standards. One indicator that has stood out since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has been the number of people economically inactive due to being on long-term sick leave, which reached 2.82 million in the first quarter of 2024, and has been the main reason for economic inactivity in the UK since late 2021.