UK labour market

Our latest figures on the UK labour market have now been published.

Early indicators for August 2020 suggest that the number of employees in the UK on payrolls was down around 695,000 compared with March 2020.

Figures for May to July 2020 show an increase in the unemployment rate; despite this increase and an increase in the number of redundancies, the employment rate was up and the economic inactivity rate has fallen.

Redundancies (the number of people who were made redundant or who took voluntary redundancy in the three months before the Labour Force Survey (LFS) interviews) increased by 58,000 on the year and 48,000 on the quarter to 156,000. While this is the highest level since September to November 2012, the level remained well below that seen during the 2008 downturn.

Over the quarter, there has been a large decrease in the number of young people (those aged 16 to 24 years) in employment while unemployment for young people has increased.

The number of people who are estimated to have been temporarily away from work (including furloughed workers) has fallen, but it was still more than 5 million in July 2020.

Of the more than 5 million people temporarily away from paid work in July 2020, more than 2.5 million people were away for three months or more Total number of people temporarily away from paid work, including their time away and amount of wage receiving if away for three months or more, seasonally adjusted, UK, Jan to July 2017 to Jan to July 2020 (1000s) Source: Office for National Statistics – Labour Force Survey Notes: Time respondent has been temporarily away from paid work was asked to all in employment who were temporarily away from paid work in the reference period. Amount of wage received was asked to all in employment who were temporarily away from paid work for three months or more in the reference period. Estimates will not to sum to totals because of missing responses and limited constraining in the seasonal adjustment. Download this chart Of the more than 5 million people temporarily away from paid work in July 2020, more than 2.5 million people were away for three months or more Image .csv .xls

Total hours worked was still low but showed some signs of recovery in the three months to July 2020. Over the year, average actual weekly hours fell by 5.8 hours to 26.3 hours in the three months to July 2020. The accommodation and food service activities sector saw the biggest annual fall in average actual weekly hours, down by 15.4 hours to 13.5 hours per week.

Vacancies continued to show increases in the latest period, driven by the smaller businesses, some of which are reporting taking on additional staff to meet coronavirus (COVID-19) guidelines.

The Claimant Count, an Experimental Statistic, increased in August 2020, reaching 2.7 million. This includes both those who are working with low income or hours and those who are not working.

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11 September 2020