Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 18 December 2025

In the UK in November 2025:

• Seasonally adjusted Direct Debit data showed that average transaction amounts were broadly unchanged, compared with October 2025; the failure rate increased by 3% from 2.34% in October, to 2.41% in November 2025 (Vocalink and Pay.UK). Section 3: Consumer behaviour.

• Non-seasonally adjusted total UK retail footfall decreased by 2%, compared with October 2025, and decreased by 3%, when compared with November 2024 (BT Active Intelligence). Section 3: Consumer behaviour.

• The number of potential redundancies increased by 23%, compared with October 2025, while the number of new online job adverts decreased by 3% over the same period; trading businesses also saw a reduction in their standardised turnover balance, compared with the previous month, falling by 0.9 percentage points (Insolvency Service HR1 forms, Textkernel, final results from Wave 146 of BICS). Section 4: Business and workforce.

• The System Average Price (SAP) of gas decreased by 5%, compared with October 2025, while the System Price of electricity and the annual growth rate for the average price of automotive fuel were both broadly unchanged (National Gas Transmission, Elexon, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero). Section 5: Energy.

• Seasonally adjusted transport indicators were stable, compared with October 2025; the number of UK flights remained broadly unchanged, while the number of ship visits to major UK ports increased slightly by 1% (EUROCONTROL, exactEarth). Section 6: Transport.

• The seasonally adjusted number of Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPCs) lodged for new dwellings across England and Wales decreased by 11%, compared with October 2025, and decreased by 6%, when compared with November 2024 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). Section 7: Housing.

Notes:

1. Card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions and cash-to-card conversion.
2. Indicators with "SA" in the title have been seasonally adjusted. Indicators with "NSA" in the title have not been seasonally adjusted but do present seasonality. All other indicators do not present seasonality.
3. Existing EPC data can show sudden spikes when housing associations lodge multiple expired EPCs at once.

November 2025 saw a reduction in retail footfall compared with both the previous month and the previous year. Direct Debit failure rates increased, compared with October 2025, while Direct Debit average transaction amounts remained stable.

UK retail footfall

UK retail footfall decreased by 2% in November 2025, compared with October 2025, and decreased by 3% compared with November 2024.

Footfall decreased in two of the three site types, compared with October 2025; district or local centres decreased by 4% and retail parks decreased by 1%. Footfall in town and city centres was broadly unchanged.

When compared with November 2024, decreases in footfall were seen again in district or local centres (6%) and retail parks (5%), while footfall in town and city centres increased by 2%.

Retail footfall decreased in 11 of the 12 regions (includes UK countries and English regions) in November 2025, compared with October 2025. The largest decrease in footfall was in Wales (5%), while in Northern Ireland it remained unchanged. When compared with November 2024, retail footfall again decreased in all but one region. The largest decreases over this period were in Northern Ireland (10%) and Wales (8%). The only increase in footfall was in London (3%).

Figure 2: Retail footfall decreased in all but one UK region in November 2025, when compared with November 2024

Change in retail footfall by region, UK, November 2025, non-seasonally adjusted

Notes:

1. Details of the methods used to compile these data are available in the BT Active Intelligence methodology.
2. Data are available in further detail, broken down by region and site type, in our accompanying UK retail footfall dataset.

Monthly Direct Debit average transaction amount and failure rate

The seasonally adjusted Direct Debit average transaction amount was broadly unchanged in November 2025, compared with October 2025. The average transaction amount for “Electricity and gas” decreased by 3% over this period and for “Loans” fell by 1%. The average transaction amount for “Water” increased by 2% and for “Fitness facilities” increased by 1%. The remaining categories were broadly unchanged.

The seasonally adjusted Direct Debit average transaction amount increased by 3%, compared with November 2024. The largest percentage increase over this period was for “Water”, which rose by 29%. The average transaction amount also increased for Fitness facilities” and “Mortgages”, by 6% and 5%, respectively. “Electricity and gas” was the only category to see a decrease, falling by 3%.

The seasonally adjusted Direct Debit failure rate increased by 3% in November 2025, compared with October 2025. The failure rate increased in all categories except “Electricity and gas”, which saw a large decrease of 14%.

The seasonally adjusted Direct Debit failure rate increased by 11%, compared with November 2024. The largest increase over this period was for “Electricity and gas” (24%), followed by “Fitness facilities” (20%), “Loans” (15%), and “Water” (13%). The only decrease over this period was for “Mortgages”, which fell by 1%.

The monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount are anonymised and aggregated datasets made available to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by Pay.UK and Vocalink. The data are unadjusted for inflation and reflect economic activity in nominal terms.

For further details on what is covered within this indicator, see our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology.

Our accompanying Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset is available.

Automotive fuel spending

The annual growth rate for the average price of automotive fuel remained broadly unchanged in November 2025, compared with the previous month. The growth rate for the average fuel demand per transaction increased by 2 percentage points.

When compared with the same month of 2024, the annual growth rate for the average price of automotive fuel increased by 13 percentage points, while the growth rate for average automotive fuel demand per transaction decreased by 4 percentage points.

Our accompanying Automotive fuel spending dataset is available.

November 2025 saw a reduction in the number of new online job adverts and an increase in the number of potential redundancies, compared with the previous month. Businesses also saw a reduction in their standardised turnover balance compared with the previous month.

New online job adverts

Please note that in this month's publication, we have partially imputed the data for October and November 2025. This was to deal with one of the larger Textkernel sources showing a larger level of duplicate adverts, but not being identified as duplicates by algorithms. The adjustment applied to the data has been calculated based on the average trend of the source for the past year, and it has been applied consistently across every table. Users should treat with caution any individual odd month-on-month trends during those periods, which are more likely to be the case for more granular occupation and geography series, and focus more on the longer-term trends. Further, some of the tables may now not sum up due to rounding.

The total number of new online job adverts decreased by 3% in November 2025, compared with October 2025, but increased by 20% compared with November 2024.

The number of new online job adverts decreased in 15 of the 26 occupation groups in November 2025, compared with October 2025. Of the remaining 11 groups, 8 increased and 3 remained broadly unchanged.

"Protective service occupations" and "Science, research, engineering and technology professionals” saw the largest percentage increases at 18% and 12%, respectively, in November 2025 compared with October 2025. The largest percentage decreases over the same period were in "Skilled agricultural and related trades", “Teaching and other educational professionals", and "Skilled construction and building trades", which fell by 43%, 34%, and 30%, respectively.

When compared with November 2024, 24 of the 26 occupation groups increased. "Science, research, engineering and technology professionals” and "Protective service occupations" also saw the largest percentage increase over this period at 57% and 43%, respectively.

Figure 7: The number of new online job adverts increased all 12 regions (includes UK countries and English regions) in November 2025 compared with November 2024

Volume of new online job adverts, UK countries and English regions, January 2020 to November 2025, non-seasonally adjusted

Notes:

1. Please note that the sum of English regions and UK countries in this chart does not sum to the overall total of online job adverts. This is because of the omission of unknown locations from this chart.
2. For information on how adverts were assigned to geographical locations, see measuring labour demand volumes across the UK using Textkernel data user guide.

The number of new online job adverts increased in all 12 regions (includes UK countries and English regions) in November 2025, compared with November 2024. The number of new online job adverts increased by 28% in the North East and by 26% in the South West in the same period.

The number of new online job adverts decreased in 8 of the 12 regions (includes UK countries and English regions) in November 2025, compared with October 2025. The largest decreases were seen in Northern Ireland at 8%, and in London, East of England and South East, all decreasing by 7%.

Details on the methods used to compile these estimates are available in our Measuring labour demand volumes across the UK using Textkernel data user guide.

Our accompanying Textkernel new online job adverts dataset is available, or for further tables using similar methodology and sources by local authority and four-digit SOC, see our Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification datasets.

Advanced notification of potential redundancies

The number of potential redundancies increased by 23% in November 2025, compared with October 2025. The number of employers proposing redundancies decreased by 3% over the same period.

The "Public Administration, Education and Health" industry had the largest percentage increase in potential redundancies month-on-month, up 228%, and this industry comprised 38% of all potential redundancies in November 2025. There were also large increases over this period in "Manufacturing", "Energy and Water" and "Construction", up 72%, 52% and 32%, respectively.

The largest percentage decreases were in the "Banking and Finance" and "Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants" industries, which decreased by 33% and 32%, respectively, compared with October 2025.

The number of potential redundancies increased by 31% and the number of employers proposing redundancies increased by 34%, compared with November 2024.

The largest percentage increase in year-on-year potential redundancies was in the "Public Administration, Education and Health" industry (258%), followed by "Energy and Water" (195%) and "Construction" (123%).

For more information, our accompanying Advanced notification of potential redundancies weekly dataset is available. Industry and regional breakdowns by month are available in our monthly potential redundancies dataset.

System Average Price of gas and System Price of electricity

The System Average Price of gas decreased by 5% in November 2025, compared with October 2025, from 2.684p/kWh to 2.561p/kWh, and decreased by 32% when compared with November 2024, which had a monthly average price of 3.779p/kWh.

The System Price of electricity was broadly unchanged in November 2025, compared with October 2025, from 7.619p/kWh to 7.584p/kWh. The price decreased by 19% compared with November 2024, which had a monthly average price of 9.389p/kWh.

Changes in the System Average Price (SAP) of gas and the System Price of electricity are considered by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) when setting the energy price caps for the next three months. Large changes in these prices can indicate that the future price cap set by Ofgem will change.

Our accompanying System Average Price of gas dataset and System Price of electricity dataset are available.

New vehicle registrations

The seasonally adjusted number of new vehicle registrations decreased by 1% in November 2025, compared with October 2025. Private and business car registrations both fell by 3% over this period, while registration of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) fell by 1%. New registrations of fleet cars (vehicles registered to a business with more than 25 registered vehicles) remained broadly unchanged.

The seasonally adjusted number of new registrations for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles saw the largest decreases in November 2025, down by 6% and 4%, respectively, compared with October 2025.

Our accompanying SMMT vehicle production and registrations dataset is available.

UK flights

The seasonally adjusted number of UK flights remained broadly unchanged in November 2025, compared with the previous month, and was 2% higher than November 2024.

Our accompanying Daily UK flights dataset is available.

Shipping

The seasonally adjusted total number of ship visits to selected UK ports increased by 1% in November 2025, compared with the previous month. Over this period, the number of cargo ship and tanker visits also increased by 2%, but other ship visits remained broadly unchanged.

When compared with November 2024, the seasonally adjusted total number of ship visits decreased by 6%, with cargo ship and tanker visits decreasing by 11%, and other ship visits decreasing by 1%.

Our accompanying Weekly shipping indicators dataset is available.

Energy Performance Building Certificates

The seasonally adjusted number of Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPCs) lodged in England and Wales for new dwellings decreased by 11% in November 2025, compared with the previous month. When compared with November 2024, they decreased by 6%.

The seasonally adjusted number of Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPCs) lodged in England and Wales for existing dwellings increased by 2% in November 2025, compared with the previous month. When compared with November 2024, they decreased by 3%.

Our accompanying Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's Weekly EPCs for domestic properties dataset are available.

This section lists a selection of data available in this publication. For the full list of available datasets, please see our accompanying dataset page.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or experimental estimates, which represent useful economic and social concepts.

Seasonal adjustment

Seasonal adjustment is the identification and removal of consistent and systematic variation in time series associated with the time of year. For more information on seasonal variation, and how we implement seasonal adjustment, see Section 2 of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development. Until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics". Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.

We are developing how we collect and produce the data to improve the quality of these statistics. Find out more in our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Once the developments are complete, we will review the statistics with the Statistics Head of Profession. We will decide if the statistics are of sufficient quality and value to be published as official statistics, or if further development is needed. Production may be stopped if they are not of sufficient quality or value. Users will be informed of the outcome and any changes.

We value your feedback on these statistics. If you would like to get in touch, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Dataset release dates and intended release frequency

Latest release dates and intended release frequency of our associated datasets are available in this section. Please note that there may be some change to the intended release frequency for a variety of reasons, such as data availability. If you would like further information about any of these datasets, or previous release dates, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Weekly data release

• Revolut spending on debit cards dataset; updated 27 November 2025.

• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• UK retail footfall dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• System Average Price of gas dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 4 December 2025.

• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

Monthly data release

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 18 December 2025.

• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 20 November 2025.

• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 11 December 2025.

• SMMT vehicle registration and production dataset; updated 11 December 2025.

Strengths and limitations

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society. We use close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys, or official statistics in development.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators, so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.