3. Employment, unemployment and inactivity

Employment

In the three months to February 2019, the level of employment in the UK increased by 179,000 to a record high of 32.72 million people. The increase was driven by the number of women entering employment, with female employment increasing by 142,000 in the three months to February 2019 to a record high of 15.41 million. Over the same period, the number of employed men increased by 37,000 to 17.31 million.

The overall employment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 76.1%. The employment rates for men and women increased by 0.2 and 0.6 percentage points to 80.5% and 71.8% respectively.

In the three months to February 2019, the number of employees reached a record high of 27.71 million. The number of employees increased by 179,000 on the quarter and by 369,000 on the year. More women (173,000) than men (6,000) became employees.

The number of workers who were self-employed reduced by 23,000 on the quarter to 4.83 million over the same period. In the year to February 2019, the number of self-employed workers increased by 76,000.

The total number of people working on a full-time basis increased by 138,000 to reach a record high of 24.15 million. Part-time employment increased by 41,000 to 8.58 million. Men and women working full-time increased by 62,000 and 76,000 to reach record highs of 15.05 million and 9.09 million, respectively.

The latest data show that more women (6.32 million) than men (2.26 million) worked on a part-time basis. The distribution of women who joined employment shows that 76,000 joined full-time employment and 66,000 joined part-time employment.

The increase in the number of part-time workers was driven by people who were unable to find full-time jobs, which increased by 67,000 on the quarter to 950,000 in the three months to February 2019. This has implications for individuals, as being unable to obtain full-time employment reduces their earnings and could impact on longer-term opportunities. The number of part-time workers who did not want a full-time job increased by 5,000 to 6.09 million.

The number of ill or disabled people who were inactive decreased by 7,000 to 262,000. The number of students working part-time decreased by 40,000 to 1.07 million.

Unemployment

In the three months to February 2019, the number of unemployed people in the UK decreased by 27,000 to 1.34 million. The unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 3.9%.

Disaggregating unemployment by sex shows that the number of unemployed women reduced by 20,000 on the quarter to 611,000. The number of unemployed men reduced by 7,000 to 731,000 over the same period. Thus, the decrease in the number of unemployed people was driven by women.

The number of unemployed people can be classified by the duration of unemployment into three categories: short-term unemployment (up to 6 months), medium-term unemployment (over 6 and up to 12 months) and long-term unemployment (over 12 months). The latest estimates show that short-term unemployment fell by 12,000 to 796,000, medium-term unemployment fell by 16,000 to 200,000, and long-term unemployment remained unchanged at 347,000.

Figure 1 shows the trends of duration of unemployment. Short-term unemployment peaked at 1.4 million in the period April to June 2009 and declined gradually thereafter. Long-term unemployment decreased at a faster rate than medium-term unemployment, from the period April to June 2013 onwards.

Figure 1: Long-term unemployment decreased at a faster rate than medium-term unemployment UK, duration of unemployment, January to March 2006 to December 2018 to February 2019 Source: Office for National Statistics – Labour Force Survey Download this chart Figure 1: Long-term unemployment decreased at a faster rate than medium-term unemployment Image .csv .xls

Economic inactivity

The number of people who were economically inactive decreased by 114,000 on the quarter to reach 8.54 million in the three months to February 2019. This was the largest fall since the November 2017 to January 2018 period. The number of economically inactive women decreased by 90,000 to reach a record low of 5.25 million. The number of inactive men decreased by 24,000 to 3.29 million.

The economic inactivity rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to reach a joint record low of 20.7% in the three months to February 2019, equal to the low point reached in three months to January 2019. The inactivity rate for women decreased by 0.4 percentage points to a joint record low of 25.3% and that for men decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 16.0% over the same period.

The analysis of economic inactivity by reason for inactivity shows that only one category (temporarily sick) increased by 11,000 to 189,000, while all the other categories (students, looking after family or home, long-term sick, the discouraged, retired and “other”) reduced.