The Office for National Statistics (ONS) shares the current state of the labour market ending April 2021.
To the surprise of many economists who were expecting the unemployment rate to be much higher than the current 4.9% which is 0.9% higher than previous year. This is, to a large extent, due to economic support by Government towards furlough and Covid-19 Relief schemes. Since the start of the pandemic the UK Government has granted £54 billion towards COVID-19 relief schemes to support businesses and individuals across the UK, saving over 11 million jobs in the process. In addition, businesses have over time become better at coping with and adapting to lockdown restrictions, such as implementing remote working environments.
This unemployment figure of 4.9% is expected to increase to 5.5% towards the later part of this year according to The Bank of England. This is because Government support schemes such as furlough is expected to end in September 2021. Economists also anticipate that unemployment should decrease next year as the economy recovers.
Here are some statistics on The UK Labour market condition: April 2021 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS):
- As expected, the largest decreases in payrolled employment were seen at the start of the Covid pandemic, severely impacting the hospitality sector, among those aged under 25 years and living in London.
- Between January to March 2021, there was a 23% decrease in the number of job vacancies. Worst affected being arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services.
- Annual average employee pay strengthened, partly due to the decrease in number and proportion of lower-paid employee jobs.
- There was 56,000 fewer people employed in March 2021 compared to the previous month February 2021.
- Employment Rate (UK): 75% (1.4% lower than previous year).
- Unemployment Rate (UK): 4.9% (0.9% higher than previous year).
- Economic Inactivity (UK): 20.9% (0.7% higher than previous year).
- Total number of weekly hours worked: 959.9 million (92.3 million hours down to previous year).
- Job Vacancies from January – March 2021: 607,000 (22.7% decrease compared to previous year).
- PAYE employees payrolled: March 2021 (28.2 million) 2.8% decrease compared to same period previous year. There is a decline of 813000 people over the 12-month period.
- Of the 813000 people, 355,000 are employees working in accommodation and food service activities sector, 223,000 are employees living in London and 53.7% are under the age of 25.
- Median Monthly Pay increased to £1,945 (5.4% increase than previous year).
