The unemployment rate in the UK edged down to 5% in the three months to January, from 5.1% in the previous period and below market forecasts of 5.2%. Still, the jobless rate remains the highest in 5 years as the country was under a coronavirus lockdown in January and would have been even higher if not for the government Job Retention Scheme which is supporting about 4 million jobs, that is, one in five employees. The employment rate was unchanged at 75% and inactivity edged up to 21%, largely driven by students. There were an estimated 601,000 vacancies in the three months to February. Separate figures based on tax data show the number of employees on payrolls rose for a third consecutive month in February. The increase of 68,000 still left the total down by 693,000 from February last year. Growth in average earning including bonuses accelerated to 4.8%, the fastest since 2008. source: Office for National Statistics
Unemployment Rate in the United Kingdom averaged 6.86 percent from 1971 until 2021, reaching an all time high of 11.90 percent in April of 1984 and a record low of 3.40 percent in December of 1973. This page provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. United Kingdom Unemployment Rate - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on April of 2021.
Unemployment Rate in the United Kingdom is expected to be 5.20 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in the United Kingdom to stand at 5.60 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United Kingdom Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 6.10 percent in 2022 and 5.10 percent in 2023, according to our econometric models.