News & Press

This morning’s Labour Market Statistics are disappointing overall (again). The further sharp fall in unemployment disguises an unexpectedly large rise in the number of people out of work and not looking for work.

This morning’s Labour Market Statistics, covering October 2021 to January 2022, continue to disappoint. A further sharp fall in unemployment, now close to its pre-pandemic record, has masked a further growth in ‘economic inactivity’ as the labour force has continued to shrink overall.

Despite vacancies hitting another record high, employment is still stuck more than half a million below pre-pandemic levels, with low unemployment appearing to be the result of people leaving the labour market entirely.

Today’s jobs figures are disappointing. Despite record vacancies, employment is unchanged on the figures reported last month while economic inactivity appears to be rising.

On the face of it, today’s figures are some rare good news for the government, with unemployment now dropping fast towards pre-crisis levels, employment rising and more than twice as many vacancies as there were last Christmas.

We’ve never seen jobs being filled at a faster rate than now, with three quarters of a million people starting a new job every month since Covid restrictions were eased.

Today’s figures show that labour shortages are now affecting the whole economy, with fewer unemployed people per vacancy than at any time in at least forty years.

Today’s figures confirm that the jobs recovery is continuing to gain speed. However they also show that we’ve seen the biggest fall in the size of the labour market since at least the early 1970s