Labour market overview, UK: September 2026

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain

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

• Employment in the UK

• Labour market in the regions of the UK

• Vacancies and jobs in the UK

• Public Sector Employment, UK

Real Time Information payrolled employees

Estimates for payrolled employees in the UK fell by 101,000 (0.3%) between July 2025 and July 2026, and decreased by 19,000 (0.1%) between June and July 2026. This is based on administrative data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

When looking at May to July 2026, the period comparable with our Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, the number of payrolled employees fell by 84,000 (0.3%) over the year and by 39,000 (0.1%) over the quarter.

The early estimate of payrolled employees for August 2026 decreased by 145,000 (0.5%) on the year, and decreased by 26,000 (0.1%) between July and August 2026 to 30.2 million. Figures for August should be treated as provisional estimates and are likely to be revised when more data are received next month.

Labour Force Survey headline employment, unemployment and economic inactivity rates

The UK employment rate (based on the LFS) for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 75.1% for May to July 2026. This is down by 0.1 percentage points on the year but largely unchanged on the latest quarter.

The UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over was estimated at 4.9% in May to July 2026. This is up by 0.2 percentage points on the year but largely unchanged on the latest quarter.

The UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 20.9% in May to July 2026. This is down by 0.1 percentage points on both the year and the latest quarter.

Claimant Count

The UK Claimant Count for August 2026 increased on the month and on the year to an estimated 1.692 million. The Claimant Count figure for the latest month is provisional and is subject to revisions after first publication. This is the result of later amendments to records in the administrative systems, for example, as work capability assessments conclude and more information is available about benefit claimants' ability to work.

Vacancies

The estimated number of vacancies in the UK decreased in the latest quarter. Early estimates for June to August 2026 suggest a decrease of 8,000 (1.1%) to 702,000, compared with March to May 2026. Estimates have remained broadly flat since the start of the year, only decreasing by 16,000 since January to March 2026. Feedback from our Vacancy Survey continues to suggest that smaller firms may not be recruiting because of increases in labour costs.

Outside of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic period, the last time there were 702,000 or fewer vacancies was in August to October 2014, when there were 701,000 vacancies.

Average weekly earnings

Annual growth in employees' average regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 3.5% in May to July 2026 and has been relatively stable over the past five consecutive three-month periods, after a year of slowing growth. 

Annual growth in total earnings (including bonuses) was 3.9% in May to July 2026, down from 4.2% on the previous three-month period. It was last lower than 3.9% in September to November 2020, when it was 3.7%. 

Annual average regular earnings growth was 6.3% for the public sector and 2.9% for the private sector. Public sector annual pay growth continues to be affected by variations in the timing of pay awards this year.

Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH), was 0.6% for regular pay and 0.9% for total pay in May to July 2026. When using the Consumer Prices Index excluding owner occupiers' housing costs (CPI), annual growth in real terms for regular pay was 0.8% and for total pay was 1.1% in May to July 2026.

Workforce jobs

The estimated number of workforce jobs in the UK was 36.7 million in June 2026. This is a decrease of 48,000 (0.1%) from March 2026, with decreases of 43,000 (1.0%) in the self-employment jobs component and a decrease of 10,000 (0.0%) in the employee jobs component. Over the year, the estimated number of workforce jobs was up by 60,000 (0.2%), with an increase of 46,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component but a decrease of 10,000 (0.2%) in the self-employment jobs component.

Public sector employment

Employment in the public sector was estimated at 6.21 million in June 2026, with an increase of 11,000 (0.2%) compared with March 2026, and an increase of 33,000 (0.5%) compared with June 2025.

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This section provides additional commentary to help users assess differences between the employment-related data sources we publish.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is our survey of households and remains the lead measure for data on labour market participation. Workforce jobs (WFJ) primarily uses business surveys to measure employee jobs with the LFS covering self-employment jobs. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data come from administrative tax records and cover only payrolled employees.

Because these sources are collected and processed differently, differences in levels are expected (for example, jobs compared with people, or varying reference periods). Divergence across indicators for more than one period is not unusual and we advise users to focus on longer-term movements in the data. Our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology compares data sources and discusses some of the main differences.

Despite the coherence challenges, the LFS remains the sole source for unemployment, economic inactivity and self-employment data, offering detailed breakdowns unavailable elsewhere.

Latest employee data

The number of payrolled employees has generally been falling over the last two years, to now stand at 30.2 million people, and continued to fall in the three months to July 2026. The latest flash estimate for August 2026 was down on the month, falling by 26,000 (0.1%), though this is subject to revision when more data are received next month. Our view remains that RTI currently provides the most reliable measure of employees.

Enhancements to the LFS, introduced since January 2024, mean that movements in the LFS since then reflect both underlying developments in the economy and improved survey quality, including obtaining more responses from employed people. As survey improvements have helped bring the level of measured employment in the LFS more in line with other indicators, recent LFS measures of employment growth are likely to be temporarily higher. As a result, levels have moved closer to RTI, with the number of LFS employees increasing by 111,000 on the year to 29.8 million in May to July 2026; but measures of change may be less aligned with RTI because they capture both real labour market shifts and changes arising from the survey improvements.

In order to help quantify these effects, we will be publishing new research linking RTI data to the LFS (on 28 September 2026). This is part of our broader research using linked administrative and survey data to help identify and where appropriate, address employment-related non-response bias in surveys.

We have published the latest estimate of WFJ in our September 2026 labour market publication. The employee component of WFJ has fallen slightly in the most recent quarter. WFJ can sometimes lag behind other indicators, as seen at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; it is often brought more in-line following our annual benchmarking exercise, which aligns the WFJ employee data with the larger annual Business and Register Employment Survey, which has a wider coverage of small firms. The benchmarking process has revised the series down in recent years. The next benchmarking exercise is due to be published in December 2026.

Figure 1 shows the three employee indicators over a longer time series.

We are continuing to further analyse the current differences in estimates of change between our measures of employees and will provide updates in future bulletins and quality articles. We plan to provide a summary of our current evidence on the coherence between sources in our next Labour Force Survey quality article in October.

Current quality considerations

Real Time Information payrolled employees

Flash estimates should be treated as provisional estimates and are likely to be revised when more data are received next month. We publish information on revisions to payrolled employees monthly. We have also published analysis of recent revisions in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article.

We also publish RTI pay data, which provide a provisional, timelier estimate of median pay. Average weekly earnings and RTI generally trend well for mean total pay. However, there will be differences between the two data sources because of timing and definitional differences.

Labour Force Survey

As part of work to address quality concerns with the LFS, response levels and rates have shown clear improvement, with responses now close to their pre-coronavirus pandemic level. The achieved sample, including imputed cases (the dataset size), has increased from 80,078 individuals in January to March 2026 to 81,193 individuals in April to June 2026, as shown in our LFS performance and quality monitoring report: April to June 2026.

Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in LFS data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. Since then, further changes that were introduced to help increase response levels may have an ongoing impact on the survey. These include allocating more interviewers to the LFS from March 2025, which helped drive a recovery of the response levels for the LFS to close to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in 2026. Our assessment of the impact of these changes on measured employment is outlined in the previous section.

Despite the improvement in LFS responses, some volatility remains, particularly for estimates for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, and for granular breakdowns, where sample sizes are smaller. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and we advise users to focus on long term movements in the data.

An LFS operational issue occurred in May 2026, which led to temporary under-resourcing in LFS telephone collection operations. Our analysis to date indicates that the issue had a minimal impact on the headline estimates, although it does suggest there is a small but noticeable impact on the estimates of average hours and therefore the total actual hours worked. A summary of our analysis to date is available in the LFS quality update: July 2026 article and we plan to publish a further update in the next LFS quality article.

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

Claimant Count

Revisions in recent months have tended to be made downwards, as shown in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article. We publish information on Claimant Count revisions each month. Our LFS quality update: April 2026 article includes information on definitional differences with LFS unemployment.

Workforce Jobs

In our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: June 2026 bulletin, we announced our intention to bring forward our annual seasonal adjustment review, and to implement the new seasonal parameters in this edition of the bulletin. This change is in response to emerging evidence of evolving seasonal patterns.

We have now completed our standard annual seasonal adjustment review, which has highlighted the need for a more in-depth review of our indirect, bottom-up approach to seasonal adjustment. We require more time to undertake this in-depth review and implement any solutions required. Therefore, the estimates published in September 2026 will remain on our current seasonal adjustment basis. More information on the current seasonal adjustment method can be found in our WFJ quality and methods guide.

Further information

Further progress has been made on the Linked Employer - Employee Dataset (LEED), which links workers to their employers and enables longitudinal tracking. Work is progressing in assessing the feasibility of improving quality assurance for existing labour market statistics. We also plan to publish the first set of experimental labour market flows statistics in late 2026, which would capture movements in and out of payrolled employment, including job-to job flows between and within industries. Updates on progress will be provided in our Labour market transformation articles. 

Alongside the labour market release in July, we published our LFS quality update: July 2026 article. This 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. It also includes an impact assessment of the recent LFS operational issue on headline estimates and RTI estimates relative to the population, which have been published for the first time.

View all related data on our related data page.

Alternatively, Nomis provides free access to the most detailed and up-to-date UK labour market statistics.

Average weekly earnings

Average weekly earnings (AWE) are calculated using information based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey (MWSS). AWE measures money paid by employers to employees in Great Britain before tax and other deductions from pay. The estimates are not just a measure of pay rises, because they also reflect, for example, changes in the overall structure of the workforce. More high-paid jobs in the economy would have an upward effect on the earnings growth rate.

Economic inactivity

People not in the labour force who are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment. This is because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks or they 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. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates are official statistics.

Employment

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. The LFS estimates are official statistics.

Unemployment

Unemployment measures 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 who are unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (people in work and those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed. The LFS estimates are official statistics.

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 Jobseeker's Allowance, and Universal Credit claimants in the "searching for work" conditionality group.

Vacancies

Vacancies are defined as positions for which employers are actively seeking recruits from outside their business or organisation. The estimates are based on the Vacancy Survey. This is a survey of businesses designed to provide estimates of the stock of vacancies across the economy, excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing (a small sector for which the collection of estimates would not be practical).

Pay As You Earn Real Time Information

These data come from HM Revenue and Customs's (HMRC's) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. They cover the whole population, rather than a sample of people or companies, and they will allow for more detailed estimates of the population.

In July 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) published a letter confirming the accreditation of HMRC and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on earnings and employment from PAYE RTI.

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

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

Information on revisions is available in our Labour market statistics revisions policy.

Further information is available in our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.

Accredited official statistics

On 7 June 2024, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) introduced the new accredited official statistics badge, to denote official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the OSR. Accredited official statistics comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This UK labour market bulletin includes a combination of accredited official statistics, official statistics and 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.

The following labour market outputs are accredited official statistics:

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) (accredited by the OSR in July 2025)

• Labour disputes (reviewed by the OSR in February 2023)

• Vacancy statistics (reviewed by the OSR in April 2022)

• Workforce jobs (WFJ) (reviewed by the OSR in April 2022)

• Average weekly earnings (AWE) (reviewed by the OSR in July 2026)

On 11 August 2026, the ONS wrote a letter to the OSR stating that LFS and APS derived outputs that are currently official statistics in development will move to official statistics. The ONS will not be seeking reaccreditation. Instead, our priority is for outputs based on the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), as the online-first sustainable replacement for the LFS and APS, to achieve the standards required to become accredited official statistics, and for the OSR to consider their accreditation at the earliest opportunity.

Claimant Count statistics are currently designated as official statistics in development.

Labour market transformation

We have provided an update on the transformation of labour market statistics in our Labour market transformation update on progress and plans: August 2026 article.

We welcome your feedback on this latest update and our plans. Please email us at labour.market.transformation@ons.gov.uk to tell us what you think.

Coronavirus

For more information on how labour market data sources were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

Pre-release data

The Bank of England was granted exceptional pre-release access to our Labour market overview, UK: September 2026 bulletin and accompanying tables at 10:00am on Monday 14 September 2026. This was so that the data were available for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held that day. For further information, see the Exchange of letters requesting exceptional pre-release access.

Release times consultation in market-sensitive publications

The ONS is reviewing the release times for its market sensitive economic statistics, such as Labour market overview, to consider whether the current arrangements continue to best serve the public good, support user needs and align with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We are running a consultation to gather evidence on the impact of different release times. The consultation asks how you use market-sensitive economic statistics, your views on potential release time options, and any other considerations we should take into account. Please note that this consultation will be closing on Friday 30 October 2026.