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Employment, Unemployment And Economic Inactivity in UK - March 2021

23rd March 2021

From todays report by the Office for National Statistics

Employment

Employment measures the number of people aged 16 years and over in paid work and those who had a job that they were temporarily away from. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment.

For people aged between 16 and 64 years, for November 2020 to January 2021:

the estimated employment rate for all people was 75.0%; this is 1.5 percentage points down on the same period the previous year and 0.3 percentage points down compared with the previous quarter (August to October 2020)

the estimated employment rate for men was 78.2%; this is 2.3 percentage points down on the same period the previous year and 0.3 percentage points down on the quarter

the estimated employment rate for women was 71.8%; this is 0.7 percentage points down on the same period the previous year (the largest annual decrease since October to December 2010) and 0.3 percentage points down on the quarter

The single-month and weekly estimates of the employment rate over the three-month period suggest that the rate was lowest in December 2020 and may have increased slightly in January 2021.

Estimates for November 2020 to January 2021 show 32.37 million people aged 16 years and over in employment, 611,000 fewer than a year earlier and down 147,000 on the quarter.

Estimates of the number of people in employment on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are consistent with the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of employment. Under this definition, employment includes both those who are in work during the reference period and those who are temporarily away from a job. The number of people who are estimated to be temporarily away from work includes furloughed workers, those on maternity or paternity leave and annual leave.

The LFS collects information on those temporarily away from paid work that they expect to return to. These experimental weekly Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates show that before the first lockdown in March 2020 the estimated proportion of people temporarily away from work (that is, the total number of people temporarily away from work divided by the total number of people in employment) was approximately 7.5%. These people could be away for a variety of reasons including sickness, maternity or paternity leave, holidays or economic reasons. There was a large increase in both March and April 2020 in those stating that they were temporarily away from paid work, with nearly 28% away from work in the final week of April 2020. While the proportion of people temporarily away from work has fallen since its peak in April, it has still not dropped below 10%, and increased in November 2020 and again in December and January as a result of further national lockdowns.

Experimental weekly Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates show approximately half a million employees received no pay while their job was on hold and/or affected by the coronavirus pandemic in April and May 2020. This decreased and had remained largely flat at around 200,000 since July 2020; however, it has increased over the last quarter to an average of just over 300,000 in December 2020 and January 2021.

The Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) shows that for Wave 25 (8 to 21 February 2021), 19.0% of the business workforce were on furlough. Between 30 November 2020 and 14 January 2021, the proportion of the business workforce on furlough rose consistently each fortnight, from 10.8% to 18.3% respectively.

Unemployment

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is not the proportion of the total population who are unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed.

For people aged 16 years and over, for November 2020 to January 2021:

the estimated UK unemployment rate for all people was 5.0%; this is 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous quarter

the estimated UK unemployment rate for men was 5.2%; this is 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous quarter

the estimated UK unemployment rate for women was 4.7%; this is 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous quarter

The single-month and weekly estimates of the unemployment rate suggest that the rate decreased slightly in January 2021.

For November 2020 to January 2021, an estimated 1.70 million people were unemployed, up 360,000 on the same period the previous year and up 11,000 on the quarter.

Economic inactivity

Economic inactivity measures people without a job but who are not classed as unemployed because they have not been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and/or they are unable to start work within the next two weeks. Our headline measure of economic inactivity is for those aged between 16 and 64 years.

For people aged between 16 and 64 years, for November 2020 to January 2021:

the estimated economic inactivity rate for all people was 21.0% (the highest it has been since June to August 2019); this is up by 0.6 percentage points on the same period the previous year (the largest annual increase since February to April 2010) and up by 0.3 percentage points on the quarter

the estimated economic inactivity rate for men was 17.4% (the highest it has been since August to October 2011); this is up by 1.4 percentage points on the same period the previous year and up by 0.4 percentage points on the quarter

the estimated economic inactivity rate for women was 24.6%; this is down by 0.1 percentage points on the same period the previous year but up by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter

Estimates for November 2020 to January 2021 show 8.71 million people aged between 16 and 64 years not in the labour force (economically inactive). This was 279,000 more than a year earlier and 108,000 more than the previous quarter. The annual increase for people who are economically inactive was largely driven by people who are inactive because they are students or because of "other" reasons.