Labour Market In The Regions Of The UK: March 2022

15th March 2022

Main points.
Comparing February 2022 with February 2021, changes in payrolled employees ranged from a 7.5% increase in London to a 4.8% increase in the East of England.

For the three months ending January 2022, the highest employment rate estimate in the UK was in the East of England (78.9%); the lowest employment rate was in Northern Ireland (70.4%).

The largest change in the employment rate compared with the same period last year was in the West Midlands, with an increase of 2.7 percentage points to a record high of 75.7%; the largest decrease was in the South East at 0.8 percentage points.

For the three months ending January 2022, the highest unemployment rate estimate in the UK was in the North East (5.5%) and the lowest was in Northern Ireland (2.7%); the East Midlands saw a record low unemployment rate of 3.1%.

The South East was the only region to show an increase in the unemployment rate compared with the same period last year, with an increase of 0.4 percentage points; London saw the largest decrease of 2.5 percentage points.

For the three months ending January 2022, the highest economic inactivity rate estimate in the UK was in Northern Ireland (27.5%) and the lowest was in the East of England (18.6%).

The largest change in the economic inactivity rate compared with the same period last year was in the West Midlands, with a decrease of 1.6 percentage points to a record low of 20.3%; the largest increase was in Yorkshire and The Humber at 1.3 percentage points.

Between September and December 2021, workforce jobs increased in 7 out of 12 regions of the UK; the South West had the largest increase of 50,000, Yorkshire and The Humber had the largest decrease of 35,000, London had the highest proportion of service-based jobs at 92.3%, and the East Midlands had the highest proportion of production sector jobs at 12.2%.

Read the full report at https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/uklabourmarketmarch2022