August Labour Market Statistics: ONS
We have compiled a summary of the significant findings from the latest ONS report for August. This report provides crucial estimates and statistics related to employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, and other important indicators for the UK. Through this, we can gain valuable insights into the current state of the labour market.
Employment/Unemployment Rates
From April to June 2023, the UK employment rate was estimated at 75.7%, which is 0.1 percentage points lower than what was recorded in January to March 2023. The decrease in employment in this quarter was driven by full-time employees and self-employed workers.
The UK unemployment rate in this quarter increased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.2%. This increase in unemployment was driven by people who were unemployed for up to 6 months.
Job Vacancies
From May to July 2023, there was a fall in vacancies in the quarter for the 13th consecutive period. The estimated number of vacancies fell by 66,000 in the quarter to 1,020,000.
Economic Activity
From April to June 2023, the economic activity rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points in the quarter to 20.9%. The large driver for the decrease in economic activity during the latest quarter was those inactive due to looking after family or their home. As well as this, those inactive because of long-term sickness increased to a record high. According to flow estimates, between January to March 2023 and April to June 2023, there was a large net movement from economic inactivity into unemployment.
Labour Disputes
160,000 working days were lost due to labour disputes in the month of June. Over half of these days were lost because of labour disputes in the Health and Social Work sector.
Payroll
In July 2023, the estimated number of payrolled employees showed an increase of 97,000 on the revised June 2023 figure, up to 30.2 million. This estimate should be treated as provisional and will likely be revised when more data is received in the following month.
Annual Growth
April to June 2023 saw the highest annual growth rate in comparable records since 2001 as annual growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) was recorded at 7.8%.
The annual growth in employees’ average total pay (including bonuses) was 8.2%, the rate being affected due to the NHS one-off bonus payments being made in June 2023.
In real terms (taking into account inflation using CPI, including owner occupier’s housing costs), annual growth for total pay rose by 0.5% and 0.1% for regular pay.
In conclusion, the Office for National Statistics’ August report provides insights into the UK’s economy and labour market. Key findings include UK employment slightly dipped due to reduced full-time and self-employed roles, while unemployment saw a modest increase. Job vacancies continued to decline, economic inactivity lessened slightly, and labour disputes affected mainly the Health and Social Work sector. Payrolled employees increased provisionally. Annual pay growth was significant, especially for regular and total pay, influenced by NHS bonuses. Adjusted for inflation, real pay growth remained modest.
Source: Labour market overview, UK – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
