The latest ONS Labour Market Overview shows that:
- The UK unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.3%, equating to 1.508 million people unemployed.
- Unemployment increased and remains significantly high among younger age groups:
Aged 16-17: 24%
Aged 18-24: 12.7% - The employment rate decreased marginally to 74.9%, with 33.77 million people in work.
- The economic inactivity rate remained stable at 21.7%, similar to 12 months ago. There are 9.337 million people economically inactive, consistent with last year but 703,000 higher than pre-pandemic levels.
- Job vacancies fell again to 818,000, marking the 29th consecutive period of decline, down by 31,000 compared to the previous quarter. Despite the fall, vacancies remain above pre-COVID levels. This equates to 1.8 unemployed people per vacancy for August to October 2024, an increase from the previous quarter.
- The number of payrolled employees in October 2024 stood at 30.37 million, an annual increase of 75,979 and 1.33 million higher than pre-pandemic levels.
- Annual growth in regular pay (both with and without bonuses) was 5.2%. Adjusted for inflation:
Regular pay grew by 5.4%
Total pay increased by 4.3% - The claimant count, which measures those receiving unemployment-related benefits, increased both monthly and annually to 1.769 million.
- Redundancies rose to 3.4 per 1,000 employees, a slight increase from the previous quarter and year.
- 42,000 working days were lost to labour disputes in October, down from 48,000 in the previous month.
SHARE:
