Labour Market Statistics Summary

Latest Release: 16 March 2023

Summary

The number of employees on UK payrolls increased by 207,000 in January 2023 to a record high of 30.1 million. This is the largest monthly increase since June 2021 and brings the total number of employees on payrolls to a record high.

The unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5% in the three months to January 2023, the lowest rate since December 1974. This is the joint-lowest rate since records began in 1971.

The number of vacancies in the UK decreased by 6,000 to 1.1 million in the three months to February 2023, the lowest level since July 2021. This is still higher than the pre-pandemic level of 848,000 vacancies in January 2020.

Average weekly earnings increased by 6.7% in the year to January 2023, which is the highest annual growth rate since records began in 2001. This is driven by a number of factors, including the increase in the National Living Wage, the tight labour market, and pay increases in the public sector.

The number of redundancies increased by 18,000 in the three months to January 2023 to 105,000. This is the highest level since September 2020, but still below the pre-pandemic level of 139,000 redundancies in January 2020.