Labour market in the regions of the UK - February 2025

19th February 2025

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have been affected by increased volatility, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes. This means that estimates of change should be treated with additional caution; we recommend using them as part of our suite of labour market indicators alongside workforce jobs (WFJ), Claimant Count data and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) estimates.

The LFS continues to be the sole source of data for unemployment, economic inactivity and self-employment, and provides a range of breakdowns that are only possible from LFS data.

It is also likely that some of the recent movements in LFS estimates are being affected by the increased sample size and the changes made to data collection methods over the last year, in addition to any underlying changes in the labour market.

LFS estimates are weighted to 2022 mid-year population estimates for periods from January to March 2019; headline UK seasonally adjusted series before this have been modelled, but other series have a discontinuity at this point.

The highest employment rate in the UK was in the South West (78.8%) and the lowest was in Wales (70.0%), the highest unemployment rate was in London (6.1%) and the lowest was in Northern Ireland (1.6%), and the highest economic inactivity rate was in Northern Ireland (26.6%) and the lowest was in the South West (17.9%), in October to December 2024.

Changes in the number of payrolled employees ranged from a 1.0% increase in Northern Ireland, to a 0.1% decrease in Scotland, when comparing January 2025 with the same period the previous year.

Read the full ONS report HERE