The most recent data show the labour market continuing to recover from the impact of coronavirus pandemic:
- The number of payrolled employees increased by 0.4% over the past month to 29.5 million (up 4.2% over the year)
- The employment rate increased by 0.1% over the quarter to 75.7% (up 0.9% over the year)
- The unemployment rate decreased by 0.3% over the quarter to 3.7% (down 1.2% over the year)
- The economic inactivity rate increased by 0.1% over the quarter to 21.4% (unchanged over the year)
- Redundancies fell by 2,000 over the quarter to 70,000 (81,000 fewer than a year ago)
- Vacancies increased by 2.7% over the quarter to reach another record high of 1,295,000 (up 94.9% over the year)
- In the Electricity & Gas industries, the number of vacancies increased by 6% during the quarter (down 2% over the year) to around 5,000
- In the Water supply, sewerage, waste & remediation activities industries, the number of vacancies increased by 8% during the quarter (up 91% over the year) to around 8,000
- Total hours worked increased by 14.8 million hours over the quarter to 1.04 billion hours (up 91.1 million hours over the year)
- Earnings growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was up 7.0% and regular pay (excluding bonuses) was up 4.2%
- 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 14 June 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.
