The most recent data shows that the labour market’s post-COVID recovery appears at an end with a number of the main indicators turning negative over the past quarter, including a record fall in real terms regular pay for the second consecutive month.
- The number of payrolled employees increased by 0.2% over the past month to 29.7 million (up 2.9% over the year)
- The employment rate fell by 0.1% over the quarter to 75.5% (up 0.5% over the year)
- The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% over the quarter to 3.8% (down 0.9% over the year)
- The economic inactivity rate remained unchanged over the quarter at 21.4% (up 0.2% over the year)
- Redundancies fell by 16,000 over the quarter to 54,000 (44,000 fewer than a year ago)
- Vacancies fell by 1.5% over the quarter to 1,274,000 (up 32.1% over the year)
- In the Electricity & Gas industry, the number of vacancies increased by 11.3% during the quarter (up 5.4% over the year) to around 6,000
- In the Water supply, sewerage, waste & remediation activities industry, the number of vacancies fell by 6.8% during the quarter (up 30.2% over the year) to around 8,000
- Total hours worked fell by 0.8 million hours over the quarter to 1.04 billion hours (up 39.5 million hours over the year)
- Earnings growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was up 5.1% and regular pay (excluding bonuses) was up 4.7%
- In real terms (adjusted for inflation), growth in total pay was down 2.5% on the year, with regular pay falling by 3.0% (a new record fall for regular pay)
The next update will be on 13 September 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.