Labour Market Overview, UK - January 2024 - Earnings Up 6.6%

17th January 2024

In October to December 2023, the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 49,000 on the quarter to 934,000. Vacancies fell on the quarter for the 18th consecutive period, the longest consecutive run of quarterly falls ever recorded but still above pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels.

Annual growth in regular earnings (excluding bonuses) in Great Britain was 6.6% in September to November 2023, and annual growth in employees' average total earnings (including bonuses) was 6.5% in September to November 2023. Annual growth in real terms (adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH)) for total pay rose on the year by 1.3% in September to November 2023, and for regular pay rose on the year by 1.4%.

In November 2023, there were 69,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK, the lowest number of working days lost since May 2022. Over half of the labour disputes in November 2023 were in the transport, storage, information and communication industries.

The estimate of payrolled employees in the UK for December 2023 decreased by 24,000 on the revised November 2023 figure to 30.2 million. The December 2023 estimate should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data are received next month.

Because of the increased uncertainty around the Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, we are publishing an alternative series of estimates of UK employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity in our Using administrative data to create headline labour market figures article. These figures were derived using growth rates from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (excluding the early flash estimate) and the Claimant Count for the periods from May to July 2023 onwards. Our Statement on the Labour Force Survey published on 12 January 2024 stated that we will publish a methods article in the coming weeks explaining the improvements that are being made to the LFS, as well as the impacts of these improvements on headline estimates, ahead of the reintroduction of a fuller LFS-based dataset in the February 2024 publication.

These alternative estimates for September to November 2023 show that:

the UK employment rate (for those aged 16 to 64 years) increased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 75.8%
the UK unemployment rate (for those aged 16 years and over) was largely unchanged on the quarter at 4.2%
the UK economic inactivity rate (for those aged 16 to 64 years) decreased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 20.8%

Read he full ONS report HERE