Labour Market In The Regions Of The UK: March 2021

23rd March 2021

From todays report by the Office for National Statistics.

Of the 693,000 decrease in payrolled employees since February 2020, 209,000 can be attributed to employees living in London, 105,000 in the South East, while only 7,000 can be attributed to employees living in Northern Ireland.

Compared with February 2020, pay grew fastest for Scotland (positive 5.4%) and slowest in the North East (positive 3.4%).

For the three months ending January 2021, the highest employment rate estimate in the UK was in the South East (78.5%) and the lowest was in Northern Ireland (69.3%); most regions saw a decrease in the employment rate compared with the same period last year, except for Yorkshire and The Humber, which saw a small increase of 0.7 percentage points.

For the three months ending January 2021, the highest unemployment rate estimate in the UK was in London (7.2%) and the lowest was in the South East (3.4%); most regions saw an increase in the unemployment rate compared with the same period last year, with London seeing the largest increase, at 2.7 percentage points; the North East remained unchanged compared with the same period last year.

For the three months ending January 2021, the highest economic inactivity rate estimate in the UK was in Northern Ireland (28.0%) and the lowest was in the South East (18.8%); most regions saw an increase in the economic inactivity rate compared with the same period last year, except for Yorkshire and The Humber which saw a decrease of 1.3 percentage points, and London with a decrease of 0.8 percentage points.

Between September and December 2020, workforce jobs decreased in most regions of the UK, with the largest decrease of 60,000 seen in London; the largest increase was in the West Midlands, with an increase of 26,000; London has the highest proportion of service-based jobs, at 92.2%, while for the production sector, the highest proportion of jobs is in the East Midlands, at 12.7%.

Average weekly hours worked, for the 12 months ending September 2020, varied between London, with 30.9 million hours worked and the North East, with 27.9 million hours worked; all regions saw a decrease in the average weekly hours worked, compared with the same period last year, with the North West and Scotland both with the largest decreases of 3.2 hours per week; for total weekly hours worked, the South East saw the largest decrease compared with the same period last year, down 13.2 million hours per week.