Labour market indicators

There were contradictory estimates of the employment trend in labour market data released in May.

The employment rate rose by 0.2 points to 75.9% (March) and was highest in the South East and South West (78.8%) but lowest in Wales (71.5%).

Other data suggested that payrolled employment fell by 136,000 to 29.8 million. That was a provisional estimate for April and could be revised next month.

While the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9%, “economic inactivity” fell by 0.4 points to 21.0%. However, within that, inactivity due to long-term sickness increased to a record high (see page 25).

The estimated number of vacancies fell by 55,000 on the quarter but was still over one million (1,083,000, February to April 2023).

Growth in average weekly earnings (total pay) dropped to 4.9% in the year to March, but that included a fall in the value of bonus payments compared with a year earlier.

Regular pay (excluding bonus payments) grew by 6.9%, close to the median increase in pay deals monitored by the Labour Research Department in the first three months of 2023.

There were 556,000 working days lost because of labour disputes in March 2023, up from 332,000 in February 2023.