UK Unemployment Rate 4.8% - Estimate 1.62 Million Unemployed

10th November 2020

Early estimates for October 2020 suggest that there is a slight drop over the month in the number of payroll employees in the UK. Since March 2020, the number of payroll employees has fallen by 782,000; however, the larger falls were seen at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data from our Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows the employment rate has been decreasing since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while the unemployment rate is now rising sharply. Redundancies have reached a record high in the most recent period, and total hours worked, while still low, show signs of recovery. The number of people temporarily away from work has fallen since its peak in April and May 2020. There are also fewer people away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay.

Vacancies have continued to recover in the latest period but are still below the levels seen before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Annual growth in employee pay continued to strengthen as more employees returned to work from furlough, but pay growth is still subdued as some workers remain furloughed and employers were paying less in bonuses.

The UK employment rate in the three months to September 2020 was estimated at 75.3%, 0.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier and 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

The UK unemployment rate in the three months to September 2020 was estimated at 4.8%, 0.9 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.7 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.

In the three months to September 2020, redundancies reached a record high of 314,000; an increase of a record 181,000 on the quarter.

In October 2020, 33,000 fewer people were in payrolled employment when compared with September 2020 and 782,000 fewer people were in payrolled employment when compared with March 2020.

The Claimant Count dropped slightly in October 2020, to 2.6 million; this includes both those working with low income or hours and those who are not working.

There were an estimated 525,000 vacancies in the UK in August to October 2020; this is 278,000 fewer than a year ago and 146,000 more than the previous quarter.

Growth in average total pay (including bonuses) among employees for the three months July to September 2020 increased to 1.3%, and growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) also increased, to 1.9%.

Early estimates for October 2020 suggest that there is a slight drop over the month in the number of payroll employees in the UK. Since March 2020, the number of payroll employees has fallen by 782,000; however, the larger falls were seen at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data from our Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows the employment rate has been decreasing since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while the unemployment rate is now rising sharply. Redundancies have reached a record high in the most recent period, and total hours worked, while still low, show signs of recovery. The number of people temporarily away from work has fallen since its peak in April and May 2020. There are also fewer people away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay.

Vacancies have continued to recover in the latest period but are still below the levels seen before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Annual growth in employee pay continued to strengthen as more employees returned to work from furlough, but pay growth is still subdued as some workers remain furloughed and employers were paying less in bonuses.

The UK employment rate in the three months to September 2020 was estimated at 75.3%, 0.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier and 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

The UK unemployment rate in the three months to September 2020 was estimated at 4.8%, 0.9 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.7 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.

In the three months to September 2020, redundancies reached a record high of 314,000; an increase of a record 181,000 on the quarter.

In October 2020, 33,000 fewer people were in payrolled employment when compared with September 2020 and 782,000 fewer people were in payrolled employment when compared with March 2020.

The Claimant Count dropped slightly in October 2020, to 2.6 million; this includes both those working with low income or hours and those who are not working.

There were an estimated 525,000 vacancies in the UK in August to October 2020; this is 278,000 fewer than a year ago and 146,000 more than the previous quarter.

Growth in average total pay (including bonuses) among employees for the three months July to September 2020 increased to 1.3%, and growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) also increased, to 1.9%.

Information from the Office for National Statistics published on 10the November 2020.

Redundancies

The redundancy estimates measure the number of people who were made redundant or who took voluntary redundancy in the three months before the Labour Force Survey interviews; it does not take into consideration planned redundancies. So, in this release, the latest estimates relate to redundancies over the period from the beginning of April to the end of September 2020.

Redundancies increased in July to September 2020 by 195,000 on the year, and a record 181,000 on the quarter, to a record high of 314,000 (Figure 3). The annual increase was the largest since February to April 2009. Experimental weekly Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates show that redundancies have been increasing since June 2020, with strong growth during the first two weeks of September 2020.

Vacancies

For August to October 2020, there were an estimated 525,000 vacancies, which is a quarterly increase of 146,000 vacancies and an increase of 182,000 vacancies from the record low in April to June 2020. The smallest businesses, with one to nine employees, saw the largest quarterly growth in vacancies, with an estimated increase of 36,000 (51.8%) vacancies, compared with an estimated increase of 18,000 (12.4%) for larger businesses with more than 2,500 employees. Despite the increase, vacancies remain below the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels and are 278,000 (34.6%) less than a year ago.

For the full report with many more details and data etc go to -

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/november2020