Rate of growth for pay-rolled employees is decreasing.
Economic inactivity rate is over 20%. Since February 2023, the claimant count rose by 85,800. This is 700,000 higher than pre-covid levels.
Job vacancies have been falling for 20 consecutive quarters.
Vacancies now stand at 908,000. However, this number is still above pre pandemic levels Annual growth in earnings was 6.1%. Labour disputes in January 2024 caused losses of the equivalent of § 203,000 working days.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found monthly demand for staff fell to 46.9 in February from 49.4 in Jan. Unemployment currently sits at 3.9%.