ONS Labour Market Report: May 2023

This Labour Market Report provides an overview of the latest statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  The data used in this report is based on the latest release as of May 2023.

Employment Levels

The UK Labour Market has been gradually recovering since the pandemic hit, with unemployment rates dropping and employment levels rising. According to the ONS, the UK employment rate was estimated to be 75.9% in the three months to March 2023, which is up by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, and up by 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period a year earlier.

Unemployment Levels

In terms of unemployment, the UK unemployment rate was estimated to be 3.9% in the three months to March 2023, which is up by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. The increase in unemployment was driven mostly by people unemployed for over 12 months.

Job Vacancies

There are still challenges in the labour market. The ONS reported that the number of job vacancies in the UK in the three months to April 2023 was 1,083,000, which is a decrease of 55,000 compared to the previous quarter and down by 214,000 compared to the same period a year earlier. This suggests that some sectors may be struggling to find workers, which could potentially impact economic growth.

Payrolled Employees

The estimate of payrolled employees for April 2023 is 29.8 million, which is a monthly decrease of 136,000 on the revised figures from March 2023. This is the first fall in total payrolled employees since February 2021.

Economic Inactivity

It can be seen that the economic inactivity rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points on the quarter, to 21% in January to March 2023. The decrease in economic inactivity during the latest 3 months was driven by people aged 16-24 years old. Including students or inactivity due to long-term sickness, which is at a record high.

Pay & Bonuses

Growth in average total pay, including bonuses, was 5.8% and growth in regular pay, excluding bonuses, was 6.7% among employees in Jan-March 2023. The average regular pay growth for the private sector was 7%, and for the public sector was 5.6% in Jan-March 2023. Growth in total for regular pay fell on the year in Jan-March 2023 by three percentage points for total pay and two percentage points for regular pay.

 

Working Days Lost

Regarding days lost, there were 556,000 because of labour disputes in March 2023, which is an increase of 224,000 from the 332,00 days lost in February 2023.

In conclusion, the latest release from the ONS suggests that the UK Labour Market is gradually recovering from the pandemic, with both unemployment rates and employment levels rising. However, there are still challenges in the market, such as a decrease in job vacancies. It will be interesting to see how the market continues to develop over the coming months and years.

 

Source: Labour market overview, UK – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)