Labour Market In The Regions Of The Uk: March 2023

14th March 2023

For the three months ending January 2023, the highest employment rate estimate in the UK was in the South West (79.9%) and the lowest were in both the North East and Northern Ireland (71.8%).

The largest increase in the employment rate compared with the same period last year was in Northern Ireland, up by 3.1 percentage points, with Wales seeing the largest decrease of 2.0 percentage points.

For the three months ending January 2023, the highest unemployment rate estimates in the UK were in the West Midlands and London (4.5%) and the lowest was in the South West (2.3%); the North East (4.1%), Yorkshire and The Humber (3.2%) and Scotland (3.1%) all saw record-low unemployment rates for their region.

The East of England had the largest increase in the unemployment rate compared with the same period last year, increasing by 0.7 percentage points, with the North East seeing the largest decrease of 1.3 percentage points.

For the three months ending January 2023, the highest economic inactivity rate estimate in the UK was in Northern Ireland (26.4%) and the lowest was in the South East (18.0%).

The West Midlands saw the largest increase in the economic inactivity rate compared with the same period last year, up 2.2 percentage points, with Northern Ireland seeing the largest decrease of 2.5 percentage points.

Between September and December 2022, workforce jobs increased in 10 out of 12 regions of the UK, with the West Midlands seeing the largest increase of 82,000, while Scotland and Yorkshire and The Humber had falls of 26,000 and 5,000, respectively; London had the highest proportion of service-based jobs (92.4%), while the East Midlands and Yorkshire and The Humber jointly had the highest proportion of production sector jobs (12.7%).

The number of payrolled employees continued to rise in all regions; comparing February 2023 with the same period of the previous year, increases in payrolled employees ranged from 3.8 percentage points in London to 1.6 percentage points in Yorkshire and The Humber.

Read the full ONS report HERE