People claiming unemployment benefits by constituency

An analysis of the latest UK labour market statistics is available in the Library briefing UK labour market statistics.

The standard international measure of unemployment as defined by the International Labour Organisation includes everyone looking for and available for work (whether or not they are claiming benefits) and is measured using surveys. Small numbers of survey respondents at the local level mean estimates are volatile and not a reliable guide to trends.

The claimant count is the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance plus people claiming Universal Credit who are required to seek work.

There were 1.74 million claimants in December 2024, which was 700 more than the month before and 182,000 more than in December 2023.

The Department for Work and Pensions made changes to the criteria for claiming Universal Credit in May 2024, and the ONS have reported that this is likely to increase the claimant count over a six month period.

The table in section 2 of the briefing provides the latest claimant count figures for each constituency.

Trends in the claimant count and unemployment

There were similar trends in the claimant count and unemployment until 2016. Both increased between 2008 and 2012 following the 2008 financial crisis, before falling back to their pre-2008 levels by 2015.

However, the claimant count has not been a reliable indicator of long-term trends in unemployment since 2016. The rollout of Universal Credit and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic both led to large increases in the count.

Unemployment increased during the covid-19 pandemic, but the claimant count increased much more sharply, peaking at 2.7 million in July to September 2020. Unemployment levels fell back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and have remained at similar levels since then, but the claimant count remains more than 500,000 above its pre-pandemic level.

Section 4.3 of the Library briefing paper Understanding statistics on employment, unemployment and earnings provides a more detailed explanation of how the rollout of Universal Credit and the pandemic have impacted on the claimant count.