UK labour market statistics update for May 2024
The latest labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics again show a mixed story of the UK’s labour market. Of the ten measures we include in our summary, five of them improved over the past quarter, and five worsened.
Of the headline indicators:
- employment fell
- unemployment (and looking for work) increased
- economic inactivity (those not looking for work) increased
- the total number of vacancies fell
Click here for a summary of the latest data.
Summary of the National Construction and Infrastructure Pipeline 2023
The 2023 National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline (NICP) provides an assessment of infrastructure investment over the next ten years. It includes £379bn of planned investment, £164bn of which is scheduled to occur over the next two years (2023/4 and 2024/25) – i.e. in the current Spending Review. However, the spending of regulated utilities beyond their current price settlement period is, as yet, unknown and therefore not included in this analysis.
Current, known, investment plans for the energy and utilities sector total £220bn over the next decade:
- Energy = £182bn
- Electricity Generation = £136bn
- Oil & Gas = £33bn
- Nuclear Decommissioning = £8bn
- Energy – Other = £5bn
- Electricity/Gas Transmission = £28bn
- Electricity Transmission = £26bn
- Gas Transmission = £1bn
- Water & Sewerage = £11bn
Gas Networks Workforce Resilience Horizon Scan
Energy & Utility Skills, working with Turquoise Thinking Ltd, has produced an “horizon scan” of the factors that could affect the people and skills requirements of the gas networks industry over the coming years, including decarbonisation, safety and emerging technologies and data/digital literacy skills. The report finishes by setting out the next steps in terms of industry collaboration.
The report summarises the findings of a literature review and interviews with industry experts into the following areas:
- Impact on operations and skills
- Impact, in terms of volume (i.e. quantity of people likely to be affected)
- Timescale
- Difficulty in acquiring the required skills