Labour market shows signs of employment weakening

This weakening in the labour market was further emphasised by the 0.2% increase in the unemployment rate to 4.2% between the second and third quarters of 2023. The UK’s economic inactivity rate – meanwhile – declined by 0.1% to 20.9%.  

In addition to this, between July and September, the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 43,000 to 988,000 – with this being the 15th consecutive fall in quarterly vacancies in a row, with vacancies also falling in 14 of the 18 industry sectors analysed.  

Month-on-month, the estimated number of payrolled employees in the UK for September remained largely unchanged – down 11,000 on the revised August 2023 figure to 30.1 million. Alongside this, UK payrolled employee growth for August when compared with July was revised down from a decrease of 1,000 to a decline of 8,000.  

Additionally, the annual growth in regular pay – excluding bonuses – hit 7.8% in Great Britain between June and August 2023. This is similar to recent periods and is one of the highest regular annual growth rates registered since comparable records began in 2001.  

Alongside this, the annual growth in employees’ average total pay – including bonuses – for the same period was 8.1%. This was mainly affected by the NHS and Civil Service one-off payments made in June, July and August 2023.  

In real terms, the annual growth rate of total pay rose on the year by 1.3%, and regular pay increased on the year by 1.1%.

There were also 119,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK, with the majority of the strikes being in the health and social work sector.