This latest labour market update summarises the state of the UK labour market in August 2023. It is based on data published by the Office for National Statistics.
- The number of payrolled employees increased by 0.3% over the past month to 30.2 million (up 1.9% over the year)
- The employment rate fell by 0.1% over the quarter to 75.7% (up 0.2% over the year)
- The unemployment rate increased by 0.3% over the quarter to 4.2% (up 0.4% over the year)
- The economic inactivity rate fell by 0.1% over the quarter to 20.9% (down 0.6% over the year)
- There were 108,000 redundancies during the quarter – 27,000 more than the previous quarter (and 54,000 more than a year ago)
- The number of vacancies fell by 6% over the quarter to 1,020,000 (down 20% over the year)
- In the Electricity & Gas industries, the number of vacancies increased by 11.9% over the quarter (up 13.8% over the year) to around 7,000
- In the Water supply, sewerage, waste & remediation activities industries, the number of vacancies increased by 7.5% over the quarter (down by 13.3% over the year) to around 7,000
- Total hours worked fell by 5.6 million hours over the quarter to 1.046 billion hours (up 3.2 million hours over the year)
- Earnings growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was up 8.2% and regular pay (excluding bonuses) was up 7.8%
- Average regular pay growth for the private sector was up 8.2% (this is the largest annual growth rate seen outside of the COVID-19 pandemic period)
- Annual growth in real terms rose on the year by 0.5% for total pay and 0.1% for regular pay
For further information about the labour market, migration or regional labour market indications, please email Rob Murphy, our in-house strategic workforce planning consultant.