Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information UK - November 2025

11th November 2025

Early estimates for October 2025 indicate that the number of payrolled employees was 30.3 million, which is a fall of 0.6% from October 2024; this is equivalent to 180,000 fewer employees.

The largest increase was in the public administration and defence sector, with a rise of 16,000 employees; the largest decrease was in the wholesale and retail sector, with a fall of 71,000 employees.

Payrolled employment decreased by 32,000 employees (0.1%) in October 2025, compared with September 2025; figures for October should be treated as provisional estimates and are likely to be revised when more data are received next month.

UK payrolled employee growth for September 2025 compared with August 2025 has been revised from a decrease of 10,000 reported in the last bulletin to a decrease of 32,000; this is because of the incorporation of additional real time information (RTI) submissions into the statistics, which takes place every publication and reduces the need for imputation.

Early estimates for October 2025 indicate that median monthly pay increased by 3.1%, compared with October 2024.

Annual growth in median pay in October 2025 was highest in the public administration and defence sector, with an increase of 6.5%; it was lowest in the health and social work sector, with a decrease of 1.9%.

Read the full report HERE