Unemployment

UK unemployment rate continues to fall

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.

As shown in our main chart (which shows unemployment rates for people, men and women), the lowest unemployment rate for people since comparable records began in 1971 was 3.4% in late 1973 to early 1974 and the highest rate, 11.9%, was in 1984 during the economic downturn of the early 1980s. The unemployment rate for people for the latest time period, April to June 2018, was 4.0%, the lowest since the mid-1970s.

The longer picture for UK unemployment rates (people aged 16 years and over)

April to June 2013 to April to June 2018, seasonally adjusted

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

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For April to June 2018:

• the unemployment rate for people was 4.0%; it has not been lower since December 1974 to February 1975
• the unemployment rate for men was 4.0%; it has not been lower since April to June 1975
• the unemployment rate for women was 4.0%; the lowest since comparable records began in 1971

For April to June 2018, there were:

• 1.36 million unemployed people, 124,000 fewer than for a year earlier and the lowest since November 1975 to January 1976
• 721,000 unemployed men, 97,000 fewer than for a year earlier and the lowest since August to October 1975
• 639,000 unemployed women, 27,000 fewer than for a year earlier and the lowest since September to November 2005

Looking at unemployment by how long people have been out of work and seeking work, for April to June 2018, there were:

• 795,000 people who had been unemployed for up to six months, 81,000 fewer than for a year earlier
• 209,000 people who had been unemployed for between six months and one year, 26,000 fewer than for a year earlier
• 356,000 people who had been unemployed for over one year, 18,000 fewer than for a year earlier

Unemployment data

• UNEM01 SA: Unemployment by age and duration (seasonally adjusted)

  Released: 14 August 2018

  Unemployment by age and duration (seasonally adjusted). These estimates are sourced from the Labour Force Survey, a survey of households.

• Labour market status by age group

  Released: 14 August 2018

  Summary table of labour market status by age group.

View all data

Where to find data about unemployment

• Estimates of employment UK and non-UK workers: Non-UK workers in the labour market and at datasets A12 and EMP06.
• Historic estimates of unemployment are published by the Bank of England: A millennium of macroeconomic data version 3.1 (in worksheets A49 and A50).
• International comparisons of employment rates: dataset A10.

Using unemployment data

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