The most recent data show the labour market continuing to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic:
- The number of payrolled employees increased by 0.1% over the past month to 29.6million (up 4.9% over the year)
- The employment rate remained unchanged over the quarter at 75.5% (up 0.8% over the year)
- The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2% over the quarter to 3.8% (down 1.2% over the year)
- The economic inactivity rate increased by 0.2% over the quarter to 21.4% (up 0.2% over the year)
- Redundancies fell by 3,000 over the quarter to 75,000 (134,000 fewer than a year ago)
- Vacancies increased by 4.1% over the quarter to reach another record high of 1,288,000 (up 105.8% over the year)
- In the Electricity & Gas industry, the number of vacancies fell by 14% during the quarter (and by 4% over the year) to c5,000
- In the Water supply, sewerage, waste & remediation activities industry, the number of vacancies fell by 8% during the quarter (though still 90% higher than a year ago) to c8,000
- Total hours worked increased by 18.8million hours over the quarter to 1.04billion hours (and up 79.4million hours over the year)
- Earnings growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was 5.4% and regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 4.0%
- In real terms (adjusted for inflation), growth in total pay was 0.4% on the quarter, although regular pay fell by 1.0%
The next update will be on 17 May 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.
