UK Labour Market Statistics

The latest labour market statistics continued trends that have been seen in recent quarters: a continued fall in earnings in real terms, a fall in the number of vacancies and an increase in the number of redundancies.

There was no change in the employment, unemployment or economic inactivity rates from those published in the January statistics to those published in December.

Key figures

• In September-November 2022, the number of people aged 16+ in employment was 32.78 million, and the employment rate for people aged 16-64 was 75.6%, up from 75.5% in the previous quarter. Employment levels increased in the last quarter and over the last year, but were still 203,000 below their pre-pandemic level.

• The UK unemployment rate was 3.7%, and 1.24 million people aged 16+ were unemployed. Unemployment levels have risen in the last quarter but have fallen over the last year, and were 131,000 below their pre-pandemic levels.

• 8.94 million people aged 16-64 were economically inactive, and the inactivity rate was 21.5%. Inactivity levels fell on the quarter, but increased over the last year, and were 498,000 above their pre-pandemic level.

• There were 97,000 redundancies, which increased by 30,000 from the last quarter.

• The number of vacancies fell in the last quarter, and over the year, to 1.16 million in October-December 2022, but remain 365,000 above pre-pandemic levels.

• Average wages fell in real terms in the three months to November 2022, with an annual change of -3.8% excluding bonuses and -3.8% including bonuses.