Uk Employment & Unemployment: Key Data And Trends

It’s worth keeping in mind too that joblessness figures do not catch everyone that is not functioning– that’s because many people not in job are rather specified as economically inactive (people aged 16 and over without a work who have actually not sought operate in the last 4 weeks and/or are not available to begin operate in the next 2 weeks).

Workforce Tasks Information

This complication is likely because Mr Starmer and Ms Rayner are describing workforce tasks information, which includes both utilized and self-employed jobs and does indeed reveal a 384,000 increase in the number of jobs between June 2024 and March 2025 (the latest month for which figures are offered).

In Between June 2024 (the Conservatives’ last complete month in government) and April 2025, the number of out of work individuals has boosted by 193,000 to simply over 1.67 million, while the rate of joblessness has actually boosted by 0.5 portion indicate 4.7%– this is the highest possible unemployment rate outside of the pandemic given that 2016.

Throughout the years we’ve sometimes seen this data merged with the total number of individuals who are utilized or the number of jobs– but this isn’t accurate, as PAYE RTI data does not consist of information on the number of independent workers, so can’t be utilized to mirror general levels of employment or jobs.

Unemployment and Work Rates

Unlike numbers for the variety of people in work and joblessness, unemployment and work prices make up adjustments in populace and the variety of people that are financially active. The ONS uses these stats as the heading procedure of employment and joblessness in the UK.

However, to be clear, these figures consider the number of tasks and are not comparable with data on real employment, which takes a look at the number of individuals who are functioning, as some individuals have greater than one task.

Multiple Data Sources

There are a number of different sources of data on the labour market. These datasets all procedure somewhat various things, and therefore debate on employment, joblessness and tasks can typically be confusing– for example, we routinely see relatively contradictory claimson these topics made during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), when as a matter of fact each side is referring to completely various information.

The number of individuals in payrolled work has dropped by about 178,000 in the year in between June 2024 and June 2025, while the claimant matter has actually raised by roughly 98,000 over the exact same period.

Employed vs. Payrolled

However, the numberof used people has actually enhanced by more than half a million (541,000) in between June 2024 and April 2025, while the price of work has seen a similar 0.5 portion point rise.

These numbers are utilized to calculate both the price of employment– the complete number of people in employment as a percentage of economically energetic individuals– and the rate of joblessness– the overall number of individuals that are out of work as a portion of financially active people.

The ONS releases figures showing the number of individuals that are employed (aged 16 or over and doing at the very least one hour of paid job per week, or working they’re temporarily far from) and unemployed (without a task, but readily available to function and proactively looking for work, or running out job yet anticipating to start work in the next 2 weeks).

This explainer rounds up the key resources of data generally utilized in conversations concerning employment, joblessness and work, and takes a look at what each says about the UK’s work market considering that Work took workplace.

While this might appear contradictory, this is due to the fact that even more individuals are moving right into the financially energetic populace, therefore are now functioning or readily available to function. The number of financially non-active individuals has reduced by 326,000 because June 2024.