Employment in the UK - February 2025

19th February 2025

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have been affected by increased volatility, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, meaning 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 Real Time Information (PAYE 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.

In the year to October to December 2024, the UK employment rate increased to 74.9%, the UK unemployment rate increased to 4.4%, and the UK economic inactivity rate decreased to 21.5%.

Read the full ONS report HERE