Unemployment at lowest level in 50 years as pay levels fall
Overall, the number of payrolled employees for September 2022 increased month-on-month by 69,000 to a ‘record’ 29.7 million
The UK unemployment rate dropped to 75.5% for June to August 2022, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter (March to May 2022), and this marks the lowest level of unemployment rates since December to February 1974.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), rising inflation has caused real pay growth rates to decrease; over the year, total pay fell by 2.4% and regular pay fell by 2.9%. Although this is below the record fall in real regular pay in April to June 2022 (3%), it still remains among the largest falls in growth since comparable records began in 2001.
Average regular pay growth was 6.2% for the private sector and 2.2% for the public sector. Outside of the height of the pandemic period, this is the largest growth seen for the private sector and the largest difference between the private sector and public sector.
The estimated number of vacancies fell by 46,000 to 1,246,000 in July to September 2022, marking the largest fall in the quarter since June to August 2020. However, despite three consecutive quarterly falls, the number of vacancies remain at “historically” high levels.
Overall, the number of payrolled employees for September 2022 increased by 69,000 month-on-month to a “record” 29.7 million. Although the number of employees decreased in the quarter, self-employed workers increased.
Additionally, the economic inactivity rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 21.7%, compared with March to May 2022, due to long-term sickness levels increasing to a “record high”.
David Freeman, ONS head of labour market and household statistics, said: “The unemployment rate continues to fall and is now at its lowest for almost fifty years. However, the number of people neither working nor looking for work continues to rise, with those who say this is because they’re long-term sick reaching a record level.
“While the number of job vacancies remains high after its long period of rapid growth, it has now dropped back a little, with a number of employers telling us they’ve reduced recruitment due to a variety of economic pressures. However, because unemployment is also down, there continues to be more vacancies than unemployed people.”
