This latest labour market update summarises the state of the UK labour market in the three months to August 2022. It is based on data published by the Office for National Statistics.
The most recent data shows that the labour market’s post-COVID recovery continues to slow, with a number of the main indicators turning negative over the past quarter.
- The number of payrolled employees increased by 0.2% over the past month to 29.7 million (up 2.8% over the year)
- The employment rate fell by 0.2% over the quarter to 75.4% (up 0.3% over the year)
- The unemployment rate fell by 0.2% over the quarter to 3.6% (down 0.1% over the year)
- The economic inactivity rate increased by 0.4% over the quarter at 21.7% (up 0.5% over the year)
- There were 64,000 redundancies during the quarter – 8,000 more than the previous quarter, but 29,000 fewer than a year ago
- The number of vacancies fell by 2.6% over the quarter to 1,266,000 (up 20.4% over the year)
- In the Electricity & Gas industries, the number of vacancies increased by 9.3% during the quarter (up 1.7% over the year) to around 6,000
- In the Water supply, sewerage, waste & remediation activities industries, the number of vacancies fell by 2.4% during the quarter (up 43.3% over the year) to around 9,000
- Total hours worked fell by 3.5 million hours over the quarter to 1.041 billion hours (up 23.8 million hours over the year)
- Earnings growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was +5.5% and regular pay (excluding bonuses) was +5.2%
- In real terms (adjusted for inflation), growth in total pay was -2.6% on the year, with regular pay falling by -2.8% (a new record fall for regular pay)
The Office for National Statistics’ full update on the state of the labour market in August 2022 can be found here. The next update will be on 11 October 2022.
For further information about the labour market, migration or regional labour market indications, please email Rob Murphy, our in-house strategic workforce planning consultant.