UK Unemployment Rate

The latest Labour Market Overview reported the UK unemployment rate has fallen to 4.5% for the quarter June 2021 to August 2021, 0.5% higher than before the pandemic and 0.4% lower than the last quarter.

There has been a strong increase in employment and decrease in unemployment and inactivity rates and job vacancies have hit a record high for the second month. The impact of the end of the furlough scheme has not come through into the figures but it is not expected it will increase unemployment levels significantly.

Some key points:

• 1.48 million people were unemployed, slightly up on last year, but down on the previous quarter
• Economically inactivity rate remained broadly the same at 8.7m and slightly higher than last year
• Payrolled employees increased to 29.2 million payrolled employees, returning to pre-pandemic levels
• Level of redundancies rose to 3.6 per thousand employees and remains at pre-pandemic levels
• 5.9 million people claiming Universal Credit as at 12th August. The £20 booster ended 6th October
• Numbers of vacancies increased to 1,102,000, a record high and above its pre-pandemic level
• Estimated 1 million people still on furlough when the scheme ended on 30th September
• Unemployment levels in young people still very high; 18-24 years = 10.8%, 16-17 years old = 25.1%