Employment and unemployment

Latest estimates of the number of people in paid work in the UK.

Time period:
April to June 2018

Release date:
14 August 2018

Release frequency:
Monthly

Next release:
11 September 2018

People in work shows steady increase

UK employment rate, January to March 1971 to April to June 2018, seasonally adjusted

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

  • Lowest employment rate was 65.6% in 1983
  • The employment rate for April to June 2018 was 75.6%

Proportion of people in work has generally increased since 2012

The lowest employment rate for people was 65.6% in 1983, during the economic downturn of the early 1980s. The employment rates for people, men and women have been generally increasing since early 2012. For the latest time period, April to June 2018, the employment rate for people was 75.6%, up from 75.1% for a year earlier.

Employment measures the number of people aged from 16 to 64 years in paid work. It differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job.

For April to June 2018:

  • 75.6% of people aged from 16 to 64 years were in work, up from 75.1% for a year earlier
  • 80.1% of men aged from 16 to 64 years were in work; the employment rate for men has not been higher since February to April 1991
  • 71.0% of women aged from 16 to 64 years were in work, up from 70.5% for a year earlier

The increase in the employment rate for women over the last few years has been partly due to ongoing changes to the State Pension age for women, resulting in fewer women retiring between the ages of 60 and 65 years.

For April to June 2018, there were 32.39 million people in work, 42,000 more than for January to March 2018 and 313,000 more than for a year earlier.

The following figure shows that more than half of the annual increase in the number of people in employment (313,000) was due to more women in full-time employment (170,000), with the number of men in full-time employment increasing by 101,000 over the year.

Figure 4: Changes in people in employment in the UK between April to June 2017 and April to June 2018, seasonally adjusted

Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics

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Number of self-employed people falls

Comparing the estimates for employees and self-employed people for April to June 2018 with those for a year earlier:

  • employees increased by 369,000 to 27.45 million (84.8% of all people in work)
  • self-employed people decreased by 38,000 to 4.77 million (14.7% of all people in work)

Employees and self-employed people do not account for all people in employment as there are two minor additional categories; unpaid family workers and people on government-supported training and employment programmes.

Fewer workers on zero-hours contracts

Comparing the estimates for employment by nationality (not seasonally adjusted) for April to June 2018 with those for a year earlier:

  • UK nationals working in the UK increased by 332,000 to 28.76 million
  • EU nationals working in the UK fell by 86,000 to 2.28 million (the largest annual fall since comparable records began in 1997)
  • non-EU nationals working in the UK increased by 74,000 to 1.27 million

For April to June 2018, there were 780,000 people (not seasonally adjusted) in employment on “zero-hours contracts” in their main job, 104,000 fewer than for a year earlier. The industrial sector showing the largest annual fall in the number of people in employment on “zero hours contracts” was human health and social work (down 62,000). Detailed estimates of people in employment on “zero-hours contracts” are available at dataset EMP17.

Employment data

Data used in this analysis

Other data avaliable

  • Employment by country of birth and nationality

    Time period: January 1971 - June 2018

    Preview the data

    United Kingdom (thousands) seasonally adjusted

    Aged 16 and over Aged 16-64
    Employment Unemployment Inactivity Employment Unemployment Inactivity
    Level Rate Level Rate Level Rate Level Rate Level Rate Level Rate
    People MGRZ MGSR MGSC MGSX MGSI YBTC LF2G LF24 LF2I LF2Q LF2M LF2S
    Apr-Jun 2016 31735 60.6 1640 4.9 19035 36.3 30747 74.4 1622 5 8855 21.6
    Apr-Jun 2017 32073 60.8 1484 4.4 19183 36.4 30906 75.1 1464 4.5 8765 21.3
    Jul-Sep 2017 32059 60.7 1425 4.3 19334 36.6 30877 75 1403 4.3 8883 21.6
    Oct-Dec 2017 32147 60.8 1470 4.4 19276 36.4 30963 75.2 1449 4.5 8773 21.3
    Jan-Mar 2018 32344 61.1 1425 4.2 19199 36.2 31148 75.6 1402 4.3 8658 21
    Apr-Jun 2018 32386 61.1 1360 4 19298 36.4 31154 75.6 1343 4.1 8735 21.2
    Change on quarter 42 0 -65 -0.2 99 0.1 7 0 -60 -0.2 77 0.2
    Change % 0.1 -4.5 0.5 0 -4.3 0.9
    Change on year 313 0.2 -124 -0.4 115 0 249 0.4 -122 -0.4 -31 -0.1
    Change % 1 -8.4 0.6 0.8 -8.3 -0.4
    Men MGSA MGSS MGSD MGSY MGSJ YBTD YBSF MGSV YBSI YBTJ YBSO YBTM
    Apr-Jun 2016 16903 66 892 5 7807 30.5 16158 79.3 883 5.2 3326 16.3
    Apr-Jun 2017 17021 66 818 4.6 7946 30.8 16315 79.8 805 4.7 3326 16.3
    Jul-Sep 2017 16984 65.8 770 4.3 8074 31.3 16259 79.5 757 4.5 3445 16.8
    Oct-Dec 2017 17039 65.9 782 4.4 8049 31.1 16309 79.7 766 4.5 3401 16.6
    Jan-Mar 2018 17128 66.1 756 4.2 8028 31 16397 80 740 4.3 3353 16.4
    Apr-Jun 2018 17162 66.1 721 4 8071 31.1 16430 80.1 712 4.2 3364 16.4
    Change on quarter 34 0 -35 -0.2 43 0.1 33 0.1 -28 -0.2 10 0
    Change % 0.2 -4.6 0.5 0.2 -3.8 0.3
    Change on year 141 0.1 -97 -0.6 125 0.3 115 0.3 -93 -0.5 38 0.1
    Change % 0.8 -11.8 1.6 0.7 -11.5 1.1
    Women MGSB MGST MGSE MGSZ MGSK YBTE LF2H LF25 LF2J LF2R LF2N LF2T
    Apr-Jun 2016 14833 55.3 749 4.8 11228 41.9 14369 69.6 738 4.9 5529 26.8
    Apr-Jun 2017 15052 55.8 666 4.2 11238 41.7 14591 70.5 660 4.3 5440 26.3
    Jul-Sep 2017 15075 55.9 654 4.2 11260 41.7 14618 70.6 646 4.2 5437 26.3
    Oct-Dec 2017 15108 55.9 689 4.4 11226 41.5 14654 70.8 683 4.5 5372 25.9
    Jan-Mar 2018 15215 56.2 669 4.2 11172 41.3 14751 71.2 663 4.3 5305 25.6
    Apr-Jun 2018 15223 56.2 639 4 11227 41.4 14725 71 631 4.1 5371 25.9
    Change on quarter 8 0 -30 -0.2 56 0.2 -26 -0.2 -32 -0.2 66 0.3
    Change % 0.1 -4.5 0.5 -0.2 -4.8 1.2
    Change on year 172 0.4 -27 -0.2 -10 -0.2 134 0.5 -29 -0.2 -69 -0.4
    Change % 1.1 -4.1 -0.1 0.9 -4.3 -1.3

  • International employment and unemployment rates

    Time period: January 1971 - June 2018

    ViewDownload

  • Employment figures - 19th century to present

    Source: Bank of England

  • Employment broken down by UK regions

    Source: NOMIS

View all data

Using employment data

Glossary

Employment
Employees, self-employed people, unpaid family workers and people on government-supported training and employment programmes.

Unpaid family workers
People who work in a family business who do not receive a formal wage or salary but benefit from the profits of that business.

Government-supported training and employment programmes series
This does not include all people on these programmes; it only includes people engaging in any form of work, work experience or work-related training who are not included in the employees or self-employed series. People on these programmes not engaging in any form of work, work experience or work-related training are not included in the employment estimates; they are classified as unemployed or economically inactive.

Measuring this data

Where does the data come from?
Estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, hours worked and redundancies are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), a survey of households.

How is it measured?
Employment measures the number of people aged from 16 to 64 years in paid work. It differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job.

Everybody aged 16 years or over is either employed, unemployed or economically inactive. The employment estimates include all people in paid work including those working part-time.

People not working are classed as unemployed if they have been looking for work within the last four weeks and are able to start work within the next two weeks. A common misconception is that the unemployment statistics are a count of people on benefits; this is not the case as they include unemployed people not claiming benefits.

Jobless people who have not been looking for work within the last four weeks or who are unable to start work within the next two weeks are classed as economically inactive. Examples of economically inactive people include people not looking for work because they are students, looking after the family or home, because of illness or disability or because they have retired.

Strengths and limitations

Most of the figures in this statistical bulletin come from surveys of households or businesses and are therefore estimates rather than precise figures. Further information is available in A guide to labour market statistics.

The most robust estimates of short-term movements in these estimates are obtained by comparing the estimates for April to June 2018 with the estimates for January to March 2018, which were first published on 15 May 2018.

This provides a more robust estimate than comparing with the estimates for March to May 2018. This is because the April and May 2018 data are included within both estimates, so effectively observed differences are those between the individual months of March and June 2018.

The LFS is sampled such that it is representative of the UK population over a three- month period, not for single month periods.

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Contact us

Richard Clegg
labour.market@ons.gov.uk
+44 (0)1633 455400

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