Labour market overview, UK: June 2026

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK

• Employment in the UK

• Labour market in the regions of the UK

• Public sector employment, UK

• Vacancies and jobs in the UK

Estimates for payrolled employees in the UK fell by 138,000 (0.5%) between April 2025 and April 2026, and decreased by 53,000 (0.2%) between March and April 2026. This is based on administrative data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

When looking at February to April 2026, the period comparable with our Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, the number of payrolled employees fell by 103,000 (0.3%) over the year and by 31,000 (0.1%) over the quarter.

The early estimate of payrolled employees for May 2026 decreased by 119,000 (0.4%) on the year, but was largely unchanged on the month, increasing by just 2,000 (0.0%) to 30.3 million. Figures for May should be treated as provisional estimates and are likely to be revised when more data are received next month. Early months in the tax year typically carry a greater degree of uncertainty in their initial estimates; such estimates in recent years have received larger than average upward revisions. Information on revisions to payrolled employees is published monthly. We have published analysis of recent revisions in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article.

Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in Labour Force Survey (LFS) data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. However, some volatility remains, particularly for estimates for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, and for granular breakdowns, where sample sizes are smaller. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and we advise users to focus on long term movements in the data.

We recommend using as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs, Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) estimates.

The UK employment rate (based on the LFS) for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 75.0% in February to April 2026. This is largely unchanged on both the year and the latest quarter.

The UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over was estimated at 4.9% in February to April 2026. This is up 0.3 percentage points on the year but down 0.3 percentage points on the latest quarter.

The UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 21.0% in February to April 2026. This is down 0.3 percentage points on the year but up 0.3 percentage points on the latest quarter.

The UK Claimant Count for May 2026 increased on both the month and the year to an estimated 1.712 million. The Claimant Count figure for the latest month is provisional and is subject to revisions after first publication. This is the result of later amendments to records in the administrative systems, for example, as work capability assessments conclude and more information is available about benefit claimants' ability to work.

Revisions in recent months have tended to be made downwards, as shown in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article. Further information on Claimant Count revisions is published each month, and our latest LFS quality update: April 2026 article includes information on definitional differences with LFS unemployment.

The estimated number of vacancies in the UK decreased in the latest quarter. Early estimates for March to May 2026 suggest a decrease of 19,000 (2.6%) to 707,000, compared with December 2025 to February 2026. This is the lowest level of vacancies since February to April 2021.

The estimated number of workforce jobs in the UK was 36.8 million in March 2026. This is an increase of 256,000 (0.7%) from December 2025, with an increase of 177,000 (4.4%) in the self-employment jobs component and an increase of 81,000 (0.3%) in the employee jobs component. Over the year, the estimated number of workforce jobs was down by 98,000 (0.3%), with a decrease of 127,000 (2.9%) in the self-employment jobs component but an increase of 30,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component.

Employment in the public sector was estimated at 6.19 million in March 2026, with an increase of 2,000 (0.0%) compared with December 2025, and an increase of 37,000 (0.6%) compared with March 2025.

Annual growth in employees' average earnings in Great Britain was 3.4% for regular earnings (excluding bonuses), and 4.4% for total earnings (including bonuses) in February to April 2026. Annual average regular earnings growth was 5.1% for the public sector and 2.9% for the private sector. Public sector pay growth is once again affected by the timing of pay awards varying this year.

We also publish RTI pay data, which provide a provisional, timelier estimate of median pay. The two data sources generally trend well for mean total pay.

Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH), was 0.1% for regular pay and 1.2% for total pay in February to April 2026.

Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index excluding owner occupiers' housing costs (CPI), was 0.3% for regular pay and 1.3% for total pay in February to April 2026.

There were an estimated 120,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK in April 2026, with the majority of working days lost in the health and social work sector because of the doctors' strikes in England.

This section provides additional commentary to help users assess differences between the employment-related data sources we publish.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is our survey of households and remains the lead measure for data on labour market participation. Workforce jobs (WFJ) primarily uses business surveys to measure employee jobs with the LFS covering self-employed jobs. HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data come from administrative tax records and cover only payrolled employees.

Because these sources are collected and processed differently, differences in levels are expected (for example, jobs compared with people, or varying reference periods). Divergence across indicators for more than one period is not unusual. Our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology compares data sources and discusses some of the main differences.

Despite the coherence challenges, the LFS remains the sole source for unemployment, economic inactivity and self-employment data, offering detailed breakdowns unavailable elsewhere.

Latest employee data

Enhancements to the LFS, introduced since January 2024, mean that movements in the LFS over the past year reflect both underlying developments in the economy and improved survey quality (including obtaining more responses from employed people). As a result, levels have moved closer to RTI, but measures of change may be less aligned with RTI because they capture both real labour market shifts and changes arising from the survey improvements.

We have published the latest estimate of WFJ in our June 2026 labour market publication. In the latest periods, the employee component of WFJ has shown two quarterly increases. WFJ can sometimes lag behind other indicators, as seen at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; it is often brought more in-line following our annual benchmarking exercise, which has revised the series down in recent years.

We have undertaken additional analysis on our headline workforce jobs series as part of our quality assurance and following the publication of our recent article How the ONS assesses statistical outputs for residual seasonality on gross domestic product (GDP). Our analysis indicates mixed and emerging evidence of evolving seasonal patterns in both our headline employee jobs and self-employment jobs, although stronger in the latter. This needs further investigation at a more disaggregated level. We are therefore bringing forward our annual seasonal adjustment review of workforce jobs data. We will provide an update in September 2026, alongside the next release of workforce jobs data. Until then, caution should be taken when looking at short-term changes in these series.

Figure 1 shows the three employee indicators over a longer time series. RTI and the employee component of WFJ generally follow similar trends, but have diverged in some periods, including the most recent periods.

Over the last year, LFS employee-level estimates have aligned more closely with RTI, helped by recent operational improvements to the LFS. As movements in the LFS over the past year reflect both underlying developments in the economy and improved survey quality, we continue to advise caution when comparing current LFS results with earlier periods.

Our view remains that RTI currently provides the most reliable measure of employees. The number of payrolled employees continued to fall in the three months to April 2026. The latest flash estimate is largely unchanged on the month, with a small increase of 2,000, though this is subject to revision when more data are received next month.

Further information

To deepen our understanding of possible bias in our surveys, we have launched a new project to link LFS and Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) data with HM Revenue and Customs's PAYE data at the record level. Updates on progress will be provided in our Labour market transformation articles.

Alongside the labour market release in April, we published our Labour Force Survey quality update: April 2026 article. This article provides information about current response rates, trends and known biases in LFS data, and provides users with information to better understand the current quality of the data. Alongside our July publication, we plan to publish a new edition of our LFS quality article, which will include presenting information on RTI payrolled employees, relative to the population.

View all related data on our related data page.

Alternatively, Nomis provides free access to the most detailed and up-to-date UK labour market statistics.

Average weekly earnings

Average weekly earnings (AWE) are calculated using information based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey (MWSS). AWE measures money paid by employers to employees in Great Britain before tax and other deductions from pay. The estimates are not just a measure of pay rises, because they also reflect, for example, changes in the overall structure of the workforce. More high-paid jobs in the economy would have an upward effect on the earnings growth rate.

Economic inactivity

People not in the labour force who are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment. This is because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks or they are unable to start work in the next two weeks. The economic inactivity rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are not in the labour force. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates are official statistics in development.

Employment

Employment measures the number of people in paid work or who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). This differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment. The LFS estimates are official statistics in development.

Unemployment

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is not the proportion of the total population who are unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (people in work and those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed. The LFS estimates are official statistics in development.

Claimant Count

The Claimant Count is an official statistic in development that measures the number of people who are receiving a benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. Currently, the Claimant Count consists of those receiving Jobseeker's Allowance, and Universal Credit claimants in the "searching for work" conditionality group.

Vacancies

Vacancies are defined as positions for which employers are actively seeking recruits from outside their business or organisation. The estimates are based on the Vacancy Survey. This is a survey of businesses designed to provide estimates of the stock of vacancies across the economy, excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing (a small sector for which the collection of estimates would not be practical).

Pay As You Earn Real Time Information

These data come from HM Revenue and Customs's (HMRC's) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. They cover the whole population, rather than a sample of people or companies, and they will allow for more detailed estimates of the population.

In July 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) published a letter confirming the accreditation of HMRC and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on earnings and employment from PAYE RTI.

A more detailed glossary is available in our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.

The estimates presented in this bulletin contain uncertainty. For more information, see our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.

Information on revisions is available in our Labour market statistics revisions policy.

Further information is available in our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.

Accredited official statistics

On 7 June 2024, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) introduced the new accredited official statistics badge, to denote official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the OSR. Accredited official statistics comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This UK labour market bulletin includes a combination of accredited official statistics and official statistics in development (until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics"). Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.

The following labour market outputs are accredited official statistics:

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) (accredited by the OSR in July 2025)

• Vacancy statistics (reviewed by the OSR in April 2022)

• Workforce jobs (WFJ) (reviewed by the OSR in April 2022)

• Average weekly earnings (AWE) (reviewed by OSR in December 2014)

The following labour market outputs are official statistics in development:

• Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

• Claimant Count

Labour Force Survey

We have been facing the challenge of falling response rates for household surveys, as have other comparable countries. This issue became more acute in the LFS data collected for August 2023. The LFS estimates due to be published in October 2023 were suspended because of quality concerns. We developed a comprehensive plan to address these concerns and reintroduce the LFS, as described in our Labour Force Survey: planned improvements and its reintroduction methodology. We reinstated reweighted LFS estimates into our monthly publication from February 2024, as described in our Impact of reweighting on LFS key indicators: 2024 article. In December 2024, we carried out a further LFS reweighting exercise, based on 2022 mid-year estimates.

Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in LFS data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. Some volatility remains, particularly for estimates for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, and for granular breakdowns, where sample sizes are smaller. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and we advise users to focus on long-term movements in the data.

We recommend using LFS estimates as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs, Claimant Count, and PAYE RTI estimates.

More information on LFS quality can be found in our LFS quality update: April 2026 article.

As part of work to address quality concerns with the LFS, response levels and rates have shown clear improvement, with responses now close to their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic level. The achieved sample, including imputed cases (the dataset size), has increased from 77,927 individuals in October to December 2025 to 80,078 individuals in January to March 2026, as shown in our LFS performance and quality monitoring report: January to March 2026.

Labour market transformation

We have provided an update on the transformation of labour market statistics in our Labour market transformation update on progress and plans: April 2026 article.

We welcome your feedback on this latest update and our plans. Please email us at labour.market. transformation@ons.gov.uk to tell us what you think.

Coronavirus

For more information on how labour market data sources were affected by the coronavirus pandemic, see our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

Pre-release data

The Bank of England was granted exceptional pre-release access to our Labour market overview, UK: June 2026 bulletin and accompanying datasets at 8:30am on Monday 15 June 2026. This was so that the data were available for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held that day. For further information, see the Exchange of letters requesting exceptional pre-release access.

Revisions

In the July 2026 edition of this bulletin, we plan to implement the results of a review of the seasonal adjustment of Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates. This is expected to result in revisions to series back to the start of 2020.

We are also currently reviewing the seasonal adjustment parameters as part of the average weekly earnings annual review. The review may lead to revisions to the entire historical average weekly earnings time series and will be implemented either in our July 2026 or August 2026 publication.