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.

There were 1.79 million claimants in August 2024, which was 23,700 more than the month before and 255,600 more than in August 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 provides the latest claimant count figures for each constituency.

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.

An alternative measure that can give an indication of unemployment at a local level is the number of people who are claiming unemployment benefits (the claimant count).

The claimant count is the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance plus people claiming Universal Credit who are required to seek work. This series provides reliable figures for local areas, but is affected by changes to benefit rules, like the introduction of Universal Credit.

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. This is explained in section 4.3 of the Library briefing paper Understanding statistics on employment, unemployment and earnings.