Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 25 April 2025

• Total Revolut debit card spending decreased by 4% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, but increased by 13% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Revolut).

• Overall retail footfall increased by 5% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, but decreased by 3% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (MRI OnLocation).

• The number of new online job adverts increased by 15% in March 2025, compared with March 2024 (Textkernel). Section 3: Business and workforce.

• More than 3 in 10 (32%) trading businesses reported an increase in the prices of goods or services bought in March 2025, when compared with the previous month, up 3 percentage points from February; there has been a steady increase of 12 percentage points since October 2024, and it is now the highest proportion reported since June 2023 (final results from Wave 130 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey).

• The System Price of electricity increased by 7% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, and increased by 58% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; the System Average Price (SAP) of gas increased by 2%, compared with the previous week, and increased by 10% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Elexon, National Gas Transmission).

• The seasonally adjusted number of daily UK flights increased by 1% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, and increased by 5% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (EUROCONTROL).

• The total number of ship visits to major UK ports decreased by 2% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 4% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; the total number of Cargo and tanker ships decreased by 10% in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 5% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (exactEarth).

• The total number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) decreased by 5% for new dwellings in the week to 20 April 2025, compared with the previous week, and decreased by 15% for existing dwellings; total EPCs for new and existing dwellings decreased by 15% and 6%, respectively when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

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. Revolut adjustments to user count are at an aggregate level and as such age bands may not adjust evenly.
3. Indicators with SA in the title have been seasonally adjusted.

Textkernel new online job adverts

The number of new adverts increased by 15% from approximately 653,000 adverts in March 2024 to just over 749,000 adverts in March 2025. When compared with February 2025, the number of new adverts increased by 3%.

Figure 2: The number of new adverts increased in all UK countries and English regions in March 2025 when compared with March 2024

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

Notes

1. New adverts represent the total number of adverts that have gone online in the month, calculated by counting the number of adverts that appear for the first time across the calendar month.

2. Counts are rounded to the nearest five.

3. For information on how adverts were assigned to geographical locations, see our Measuring labour demand volumes across the UK using Textkernel data user guide.

All UK countries and English regions had an increase in the number of new adverts in March 2025 when compared with the previous year. The largest percentage increase was in Northern Ireland at 38%, while the smallest increases were in London and Wales, both at 10%.

The number of new adverts increased in 25 of the 26 occupation groups in March 2025, when compared with March 2024. The occupation group that saw the largest percentage increase in the volume of new adverts over this period was "Community and civil enforcement occupations", increasing by 97%. This was followed by "Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives", which increased by 69%. "Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives" continued to be one of the occupation groups with the highest annual increase, as seen last month.

The occupation group with the largest percentage decrease in the volume of new adverts in March 2025, when compared with March 2024, was "Health professionals", which fell by 6%. This also continued to be one of the occupation groups that showed the largest annual decline, as seen last month.

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. For further tables using similar methodology and sources by local authority and 4-digit SOC, see our Labour demand by Standard Occupation Classification datasets, which have also been updated on 25 April 2025.

Our accompanying Textkernel new online job adverts dataset is available.

This section lists a selection of data available in this publication. Please note that because of our data sharing agreement with MRI onLocation, we are unable to provide a dataset for our footfall metric. 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 25 April 2025.

• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 10 April 2025.

• Company incorporations, voluntary dissolutions and compulsory dissolutions dataset; updated 30 January 2025.

• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• System Average Price (SAP) of gas dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

Monthly data release

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 17 April 2025.

• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 17 April 2025.

• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 10 April 2025.

Quarterly data release

• Sales and jobs in small businesses dataset; updated 7 November 2024.

Discontinued data series

• UK credit and debit card payments; updated 5 December 2024.

Please note, these estimates are no longer being updated following a review of our real-time indicator (RTI) processes, sources and systems. This is to ensure timely official statistics in development are provided, with published estimates unaffected. Please see the Bank of England's Guide to the UK spending on credit and debit cards experimental data series for further information about these estimates.

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.