UK Labour Market, August 2014
14th August 2014
Comparing the estimates for April to June 2014 with those for January to March 2014, employment continued to rise and unemployment continued to fall. These changes continue the general direction of movement over the past two years.
There were 30.60 million people in work, 167,000 more than for January to March 2014 and 820,000 more than a year earlier.
The proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 in work (the employment rate), was 73.0%. This was higher than for January to March 2014 and for a year earlier.
There were 2.08 million unemployed people, 132,000 fewer than for January to March 2014 and 437,000 fewer than a year earlier.
The unemployment rate continued to fall, reaching 6.4% for April to June 2014, the lowest since late 2008. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who were unemployed.
There were 8.86 million people aged from 16 to 64 who were out of work and not seeking or available to work (known as economically inactive). This was 15,000 more than for January to March 2014 but 130,000 fewer than a year earlier.
The economic inactivity rate was 21.9%. While this was unchanged compared with January to March 2014, the inactivity rate has shown a generally downward path since late 2011.
Pay including bonuses for employees in Great Britain was 0.2% lower than a year earlier. This was mainly due to an unusually high growth rate for April 2013 as some employers who usually paid bonuses in March paid them in April last year. Pay excluding bonuses for employees in Great Britain was 0.6% higher than a year earlier.
Commenting on the UK Labour Market statistics published today Joe Grice, Chief Economist at the Office for National Statistics, said:
"The headline measure of pay, including bonuses, was 0.2% lower compared with a year earlier. This was partly due to unusually high bonuses in April last year, although underlying pay growth excluding bonuses is also low."
