Employment in the UK: May 2025

Other commentary from the latest labour market data can be found on the following pages:

• Labour market overview

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK

• Labour market in the regions of the UK

• Vacancies and jobs in the UK

• Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of recent improvements in Labour Force Survey (LFS) data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 and are therefore more likely to be representative of labour market conditions.

• An increased amount of volatility will remain in the estimates from mid-2023 and throughout 2024, so we would advise caution when interpreting change involving those periods.

• We recommend using the LFS estimates as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs, Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) estimates.

• LFS estimates are weighted to 2022 mid-year population estimates for periods from January to March 2019; headline UK seasonally adjusted series before this have been modelled, but other series have a discontinuity at this point.

• In January to March 2025, the UK employment was largely unchanged at 75.0%, the UK unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 4.5%, and the UK economic inactivity rate decreased 0.2 percentage points to 21.4%, compared to the previous quarter.

Latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates are based on interviews that took place from January to March 2025.

Because of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the suspension of face-to-face interviewing, we had to make operational changes to the LFS, which moved to a by-telephone approach. This introduced an increased non-response bias to the survey, which was reduced by the introduction of housing tenure-based weights into the survey in October 2020, as detailed in our Coronavirus and its impact on the Labour Force Survey article.

However, it was acknowledged that further improvement work was required to deal with the increase in non-response from those with a non-UK country of birth or nationality. As a result, we introduced an adjusted Labour Force Survey weighting methodology in July 2021. Further information is available in our Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators, UK: 2022 article.

LFS periods from January to March 2019 onwards were reweighted from our December 2024 labour market release. The reweighted LFS estimates incorporate information on the size and composition of the UK population, based on 2022 mid-year estimates. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, they are projected forward using scaling factors from 2021-based National Population Projections, published in January 2024. For Scotland, they are projected forward using scaling factors from 2020-based National Population Projections, published in January 2023. At the same time, the constraint to country of birth information was also removed.

This reweighting creates a discontinuity between the December 2018 to February 2019 and January to March 2019 periods. Users should take this discontinuity into consideration when considering long-term movements in the series. However, we have modelled the seasonally adjusted UK levels of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity, by sex and age band, back to the start of the population revisions in June to August 2011. This ensures that the headline series in Table 1, Table 2 (1) and Table 2 (2) (also available in A02SA, A05SA and A01 Tables 1 and 2) are comparable over the full series. Further information is available in our Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators, UK: December 2024 article.

Reweighting increased the levels of all labour market statuses but did not address issues surrounding increased LFS volatility, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes.

LFS estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of recent improvements in data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 and are therefore more likely to be representative of labour market conditions. An increased amount of volatility will remain in the LFS estimates from mid-2023 and throughout 2024, so we would advise caution when interpreting change involving those periods. We recommend using LFS estimates as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs, Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) estimates.

Alongside the labour market publication in May 2025 we are publishing an article on LFS quality, including coherence. The timing of this quality article coincides with the first period of data incorporating the full impact of some of the larger changes made from January 2024, now fully reflected in estimates for January to March 2025. The article provides information about current response rates, trends and known biases in LFS data and provides users with information to better understand the current quality of the data.

The LFS reweighting partially closes the gap between our employment indicators. However, the longer-term, broad coherence between workforce jobs (WFJ) and real time information (RTI), when looking at annual change, suggests that these sources are likely to provide a more reliable understanding of employment, particularly for employees. These two sources also show less volatility than the LFS over the same time period.

We are continuing to improve the quality of the LFS, building on our work to date. This has led to an increase in achieved dataset size, from 63,069 individuals in October to December 2024, to 69,847 individuals in January to March 2025, as shown in our LFS performance and quality monitoring report: January to March 2025. We advise using these statistics with caution while this work continues, particularly when interpreting change in the LFS and encourage users to make use of a wide range of data sources where possible.

LFS estimates are currently not considered accredited official statistics and are designated as official statistics in development.

Following an increase in the employment rate since early 2012, there was a decrease from the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There had generally been an increase since the end of 2020, followed by a decrease between mid-2023 and early 2024. The rate then increased until mid-2024 and has been relatively stable since. The employment rate was largely unchanged in the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025) and increased over the year.

In the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025) the number of part-time workers increased, whereas the number of full-time workers decreased. Over the year since January to March 2024, the increase in employment was largely because of employees.

Following decreases in early 2023, the number of people with second jobs increased in the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025) and over the year to 1.317 million (3.9% of people in employment).

We also publish estimates of payrolled employees in our Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK bulletin and estimates of the number of jobs in our Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin.

Hours worked

The number of total actual weekly hours worked has generally been increasing in the UK since 2020. Total actual weekly hours worked increased in the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025) and over the year. Both men and women's working hours increased in the latest quarter and over the year.

Average actual weekly hours worked was largely unchanged in the latest quarter but decreased over the year.

Following decreases in the unemployment rate since late 2013, the unemployment rate increased during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. From early 2021, it decreased to below pre-coronavirus rates until mid-2022. The unemployment rate has been largely increasing since. The unemployment rate increased in the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025) and over the year since January to March 2024.

In the latest quarter (Jan to Mar 2025), those unemployed for up to six months and those unemployed for over 12 months increased, while those unemployed for over six and up to 12 months decreased. The number of people unemployed for both up to 12 months and over 12 months increased over the year since January to March 2024.

We also publish the Claimant Count, a measure of the number of people who are receiving a benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. Claimant Count statistics are currently designated as official statistics in development. The UK Claimant Count for April 2025 increased on the month and the year to 1.726 million.

Since comparable records began in 1971, the economic inactivity rate had generally been falling. However, it increased during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and fluctuated around this increased rate. The economic inactivity rate decreased in the latest quarter (Jan to March 2025) and decreased over the year since January to March 2024.

Increases in economic inactivity in the first year of the pandemic were largely among those aged 16 to 24 years. Following the pandemic, increases were largely among those aged 50 to 64 years.

The quarterly decrease in economic inactivity was because of those aged 25 to 49 years. The economic inactivity rate for all age groups fell over the year since January to March 2024.

The quarterly decrease in economic inactivity in January to March 2025 was largely because of those economically inactive because they were temporarily sick or looking after family and home. The annual decrease in economic inactivity since January to March 2024 was largely because of those economically inactive because they were students or looking after family and home.

We also publish estimates of economic inactivity by reason and age from the Annual Population Survey (APS). Latest APS estimates, up to January to December 2024, show the majority of those who were inactive because of long-term sickness were aged 50 to 64 years. However, long-term sickness in this age group had decreased during the year to December 2024.

APS estimates are currently not considered accredited official statistics and are designated as official statistics in development.

APS estimates have not been weighted to the same populations as the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Consequently, all APS tables will be inconsistent with those used for the LFS. More information on the relationship between the APS and LFS is available in our Comparison of labour market data sources.

The number of people reporting redundancy in the three months before interview decreased in the latest quarter to 3.8 per thousand employees in January to March 2025.

We also publish our HR1: Potential redundancies dataset, which shows potential redundancies, covering those notified by employers to the Insolvency Service through the form, broken down by region and industry.

Flows estimates show that there were net movements from economic inactivity into unemployment, and from unemployment into employment, between October to December 2024 and January to March 2025. There was also a small net movement from economic inactivity into employment.

Actual and usual hours worked

Statistics for usual hours worked measure how many hours people usually work per week. Compared with actual hours worked, they are not affected by absences and so can provide a better measure of normal working patterns. For example, a person who usually works 37 hours a week but who was on holiday for a week would be recorded as working zero actual hours for that week, while usual hours would be recorded as 37 hours.

Workers temporarily absent from a job because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic would still be classed as employed; however, they would be employed working no hours. This has directly affected estimates of total actual hours worked during the pandemic. Since the average actual weekly hours are the average of all in employment, those temporarily absent from a job also affected these estimates.

Claimant Count

The Claimant Count is an official statistic in development that measures the number of people who are receiving a benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. Currently the Claimant Count consists of those receiving Jobseekers' Allowance, and Universal Credit claimants in the "searching for work" conditionality group.

Economic inactivity

People not in the labour force (also known as economically inactive) are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or are unable to start work in the next two weeks. The economic inactivity rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are not in the labour force.

Employment

The term employment measures the number of people in paid work or who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). This differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment.

Workers furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), or those who were self-employed but temporarily not in work, had a reasonable expectation of returning to their jobs after a temporary period of absence. Therefore, they were classified as employed under the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition.

A more detailed explanation is available in our Guide to labour market statistics.

Redundancies

The redundancy estimates measure the number of people who were made redundant or who took voluntary redundancy in the three months before the Labour Force Survey interviews; it does not take into consideration planned redundancies.

Unemployment

The unemployment estimates measure the number of people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is not the proportion of the total population that is unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (that is, those in work plus those seeking and available to work) that is unemployed.

A more detailed glossary is available.

This bulletin relies on data collected from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the largest household survey in the UK.

Important note

In the May 2025 publication, Claimant Count levels have been revised back to January 2022 because of a seasonal adjustment review, with denominators revised back to 2013, which may cause revisions to rates.

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.

These statistics are based on information from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The reweighting exercise has improved the coherence of our LFS estimates with workforce jobs (WFJ) and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) estimates for periods from January to March 2019. Nonetheless, the ongoing challenges with response rates and levels mean that LFS-based labour market statistics are now badged as official statistics in development until further review. This is also in line with the letter from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), stating that LFS statistics should not be published as accredited official statistics until OSR has reviewed them.

We are transforming how we collect and produce the LFS data to improve the quality of these statistics. We have published a Labour market transformation article providing an update on the transformation of labour market statistics.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Labour Force Survey quality and methodology information (QMI) report.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Read more about how the labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

For a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences, read our Comparison of our labour market data sources methodology.

Making our published spreadsheets accessible

Following the Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance on releasing statistics in speadsheets, we will be amending our published tables over the coming months to improve usability, accessibility and machine readability of our published statistics. To help users change to the new formats, we will be publishing sample versions of a selection of our tables, and where practical, we will initially publish the tables in both the new and current formats. If you have any questions or comments, please email labour.market@ons.gov.uk.

Country of birth and nationality labour market outputs

The RTI adjustment applied from January to March 2020 to June to August 2022 was removed from the LFS weighting methodology as part of the reweighting exercise in December 2024, as described in our Impact of reweighting on LFS key indicators: December 2024 article.

Because of quality concerns during the pandemic (as explained in more detail in our A12 dataset), we have removed the labour market status by country of birth and nationality from our A01: Summary of labour market statistics dataset and from tables accompanying this bulletin and our Labour market overview bulletins. The country of birth and nationality labour market data will also be withdrawn from our time series data.

Our EMP06: Employment by country of birth and nationality dataset and our A12: Employment, unemployment and economic inactivity by nationality and country of birth dataset will continue to be made available with additional guidance for users.

We will continue to review and update users accordingly.

Strengths and limitations

Uncertainty in these data

The estimates presented in this bulletin contain uncertainty. For more information on uncertainty, please see our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

The figures in this bulletin come from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which gathers information from a sample of households across the UK, rather than from the whole population. The sample is designed to be as accurate as possible, given practical limitations. Results from sample surveys are always estimates, not precise figures. This can have an impact on how changes in the estimates should be interpreted, especially for short-term comparisons. For more information on sampling, see Section 2 of our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

As the sample gets smaller, the variability of the estimates gets larger. Estimates for small groups, which are based on small subsets of the LFS sample, are less reliable and tend to be more volatile than for larger aggregated groups.

In general, changes in the numbers (and especially the rates) reported in this bulletin between quarters are small and are not usually greater than the level that can be explained by sampling variability. Short-term movements in reported rates should be considered alongside longer-term patterns in the series and corresponding movements in other sources to give a fuller picture.

Information on the quality of estimates is available in our Labour Force Survey sampling variability table.

Comparability

The data in this bulletin follow internationally accepted definitions specified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This ensures that the estimates for the UK are comparable with those for other countries.

Our annual Reconciliation report of job estimates article compares the latest workforce jobs series estimates with the equivalent estimates of jobs from the LFS.

We are looking to refresh our work on reconciling estimates of employment from the LFS and WFJ. This work makes several adjustments to both LFS and WFJ estimates to try to account for known differences in concepts, coverage and measurement. 

Our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology compares data sources and discusses some of the main differences.