The latest ONS Labour Market Overview reported a continued labour market recovery with the UK unemployment rate decreasing by 0.2% to an estimated 4.1% for the quarter October to December 2021, 0.1% higher than before the pandemic. The UK employment rate increased to 75.5%. Job to job moves reached record numbers due to resignations.
- 37 million people were unemployed, down on previous quarter and a similar level to February 2020
- Unemployment levels in young people are still very high but decreasing; 18-24 years = 10.1%, 16-17 years old = 20.7%
- Numbers of vacancies increased again to 1,298,400, an increase of 495,000 from pre-pandemic levels
- Payrolled employees increased to 29.5million, 436,000 higher than pre-pandemic levels
- Economically inactivity rate has increased slightly to 8.76m due to long term sick
- Economically inactive people wanting a job has dropped to a record low
- Level of redundancies decreased to a record low of 2.7 per thousand employees
- Employee jobs are being chosen over self-employment
- 6 million people claiming Universal Credit on 13th January 2022, down 65,000 from November 2021