April 2025 Labour Market Statistics

• Payrolled employees dropped slightly in early 2025, with a larger decrease expected in March.
• Employment rate improved to 75.1%, showing positive trends compared to last year.
• Job vacancies fell below pre-pandemic levels for the first time since 2021.
• Workers saw real wage growth of 2.1% after inflation adjustment.

Estimates for payrolled employees in the UK decreased by 8,000 (0.0%) between January and February 2025 but rose by 35,000 (0.1%) between February 2024 and February 2025.

Payrolled employees fell by 21,000 (0.1%) over the quarter but rose by 50,000 (0.2%) over the year, when looking at December 2024 to February 2025. This is the period comparable with our Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates.

The early estimate of payrolled employees for March 2025 decreased by 78,000 (0.3%) on the month and decreased by 70,000 (0.2%) on the year to 30.3 million. The March 2025 estimate should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data are received next month.

Increased volatility of LFS estimates, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, means that estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. We recommend using them as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs (WFJ), Claimant Count data, and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) estimates.

The UK employment rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 75.1% in December 2024 to February 2025. This is above estimates of a year ago, and up in the latest quarter.

The UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over was estimated at 4.4% in December 2024 to February 2025. This is above estimates of a year ago, but largely unchanged in the latest quarter.

The UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 21.4% in December 2024 to February 2025. This is below estimates of a year ago, and down in the latest quarter.

The UK Claimant Count for March 2025 increased on the month and the year, to 1.766 million.

The estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 26,000 on the quarter, to 781,000 in January to March 2025; following a revised December 2024 to February 2025 figure; this was the 33rd consecutive quarterly decline. Vacancies were 15,000 below their January to March 2020 level. This is the first time since March to May 2021 they were below the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic figure. 

For this release we have implemented Average Weekly Earnings revisions, on an exceptional basis, back to October 2020 to allow for late and updated returns we received from one business to be included and improve the quality of the estimates. Annual growth in employees’ average regular earnings excluding bonuses in Great Britain was 5.9% in December 2024 to February 2025, and annual growth in total earnings including bonuses was 5.6%. RTI pay data showed a similar annual growth rate when compared with Average weekly earnings total earnings, including arrear payments.

Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH), was 2.1% for regular pay and 1.9% for total pay in December 2024 to February 2025.

There were an estimated 52,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK in February 2025.

Trends and considerations around comparisons

In this section, we supply additional commentary to help users assess the different sources of data we publish on employment and related indicators.

Figure 1 shows the annual growth rates in a selection of our different employment indicators, with annual growth rates giving a more stable, longer-term view on changes.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is our survey of households, while workforce jobs (WFJ) is based mainly on business surveys for employee jobs, with the LFS covering self-employed jobs. HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Indicators (RTI) data are derived from administrative tax records and only cover payrolled employees.

Each of these three sources is collected and processed in different ways, so we do expect differences in levels (for example, jobs versus people, differing reference periods). Divergent trends between individual periods are also possible.

Figure 1: Payrolled employees show declining annual growth similar to employee jobs, but the Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows stronger growth because of base effects

Annual growth rates, employment indicators, seasonally adjusted, UK, December 2022 to February 2023, to December 2024 to February 2025

Notes:

1. Three-month averages of RTI payrolled employees have been used here for comparability.
2. Workforce jobs are published for the months of March, June, September and December. For presentational purposes, they have been plotted against the middle month of the time period shown. For example, September is plotted against August to October.

There have been ongoing challenges in assessing the coherence between these statistics in recent periods. Annual growth ranges from 0.2% for payrolled employees up to 1.8% for LFS employees, for the datasets available in the latest period. Estimates from LFS are still affected by increased volatility and base effects, as we are comparing with periods of low response rates. Annual growth from RTI and WFJ employee jobs are broadly coherent over the last two years, however WFJ is showing stronger annual growth in the most recent period available.

Figure 2: The number of payrolled employees has shown little change in recent periods

Indices (November 2019 to January 2020 = 100), employment indicators, seasonally adjusted, UK, July to September 2014, to December 2024 to February 2025

Notes:

1. Three-month averages of RTI payrolled employees have been used here for comparability.  
2. Workforce jobs are published for the months of March, June, September and December. For presentational purposes, they have been plotted against the middle month of the time period shown. For example, September is plotted against August to October.

Despite these coherence challenges, the LFS continues to be the sole source of data for unemployment, economic inactivity and self-employment, and provides a range of breakdowns that are only possible from LFS data.

We are continuing to improve the quality of the LFS, building on our work to date. This has led to an increase in the achieved sample from 44,338 individuals in October to December 2023, to 63,069 individuals in October to December 2024, as shown in our LFS performance and quality monitoring report: October to December 2024 methodology.

Minister for Employment, Alison McGovern MP said:

“We’re determined to get Britain working again as part of our Plan for Change by overhauling Jobcentres, creating good jobs, transforming skills, transitioning to net zero and delivering the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation.

“This month, local areas are also starting to roll out their plans to tackle the root causes of inactivity as we get Britain back to health and back to work – backed by a share of £125 million of investment.

“Real wages are continuing to rise, and the National Living Wage is also coming into effect this month – boosting working people’s payslips and improving living standards as part of our Plan for Change.”

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Chief Executive Neil Carberry said:

“Today’s data marks the end of a long spike in vacancies driven by the pandemic, with a 33^rd straight month of decline bringing the number of open jobs below the February 2020 level for the first time. The real question now is whether this slowdown will now abate. There are some cautious reasons for optimism in employers’ reported views of their own business prospects, and in the relatively stable levels of unemployment and employment, and economic inactivity that is finally starting to drop. But there are also huge headwinds related to the sheer cost of employment, that the government would do well to take seriously as a threat to recovery. The recent rises in National Insurance, especially for low earners, and concern about the path of both the Employment Rights Bill and the path of the National Minimum Wage have taken some of the shine off the spring mood, and government needs to offer business more than warm words.

“A stabilising jobs market and February’s GDP growth suggest the UK is in a decent position to weather the turbulence sparked by shifts in US policy, but we cannot ignore the knock-on effect on employer confidence.  While a rebound in hiring is expected in 2025, recent global trade disruptions have brought fresh uncertainty. Targeted support for sectors such as automotive is welcome, but businesses are still waiting for a clear industrial strategy to unlock long-term investment across the economy. Now is the time for government to move from talk to action, by easing rising employment costs, reassessing the Employment Rights Bill, and cutting the regulatory burden. It is time for competitiveness to enter the chat.”

Isaac Stell, Investment Manager at Wealth Club, commented;

“The UK Labour market continued to show resilience during February with little change in the headline employment figures from January. The stability in these latest figures will be welcome news for the Government, as, for the time being, the threats of job cuts following the rise in national insurance costs has yet to come to fruition.

“Average wage growth continues to outpace inflation, holding firm at 5.6% (including bonuses) in February. More good news for the Government as wages continue to rise despite the negative economic mood music and warnings of stagnant wage growth from businesses due to tax rises.

“The key challenge for the Government will be ensuring the resilience in the labour market and wage data endures despite the bumpy road ahead. Today’s positive figures must not breed complacency as they are yet to account for the higher employment taxes that came into effect this April. The hike in taxes will ultimately impact the bottom line for many businesses and the implications on wage growth and employment could be far reaching.”

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute (L&W), said:

“The number of young people not in education, employment or training remains stubbornly stuck above 1.2 million. With our research showing three in five of these young people have never had a paid job, we must accelerate support for them to avoid long-term damage to their career prospects. More broadly, the labour market continues to slow, with vacancies now below pre-pandemic levels. Payroll employment is estimated to have fallen 78,000 in March, although these early estimates can be significantly revised.”

Abigail Coxon, Senior Economist, Youth Futures Foundation, comments:

“Today’s labour market data from the ONS shows that youth unemployment continues to rise. Over the past year, the unemployment rate for people aged 16-24 not in full-time education has increased from 11.4% to 13.3%. This reflects an additional 77,000 young people who are unemployed. Economic inactivity among young people not in full-time education remains persistently high. It now stands at 20.1%, equivalent to around one in five.” 

“Rising youth unemployment and inactivity is a pressing public policy challenge. Addressing the issue is not only essential for young people and their wellbeing but is key if Government is to deliver on its ambitious growth agenda. Research tells us that if we could reduce our NEET rate to match the Netherlands – the lowest in the OECD – we could see an additional 500,000 young people in employment and increase our GDP by £69 billion.”  

“This month will see the launch of the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in some regions across England; we await early learnings with interest and will continue to work with Government, employers and others, as the What Works Centre for Youth Employment, to help more marginalised young people get into good work.”