This bulletin shows the latest key labour market statistics for the regions and countries of Great Britain along with statistics for local authorities, travel-to-work areas and parliamentary constituencies.
Data for Northern Ireland are available separately.
Labour Force Survey estimates for the period August to October 2013.
Claimant Count for November 2013.
Workforce Jobs estimates for September 2013.
Also in this release
Annual Population Survey estimates for the period July 2012 to June 2013.
Public and private sector employment (227 Kb Excel sheet)
The employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 for the three months to October 2013 compared to the three months to July 2013, showed a few large changes for the regions and countries of the UK.
The largest increases in the employment rate were for Wales at 1.5 percentage points, the East Midlands at 1.2 percentage points and the North East at 0.7 percentage points. For each of these regions the underlying pattern appears to suggest that the increase is more gradual than the latest figures suggest. Along with these, Yorkshire and The Humber, the East of England, London, the South East and Scotland also show a pattern of general increases over a number of recent periods.
Meanwhile Northern Ireland was the only region to show a decrease at 0.5 percentage points.
Employment rates remain higher in the South East at 76.0%, the East of England at 75.9% and the South West at 74.1%, than the rest of the UK.
The employment levels for Yorkshire and The Humber, the East Midlands, the East of England, London and Wales are all at record highs. In the case of London, the employment rate is also a joint record high.
Regional figures for the unemployment rate are quite volatile, which needs to be allowed for when considering the pattern of change over time.
The largest decrease in the unemployment rate for the three months to October 2013 compared to the three months to July 2013 was for the East of England at 1.1 percentage points, followed by the West Midlands at 0.9 percentage points and the North West at 0.8 percentage points. Again, these decreases are larger than the underlying pattern suggests, although these and a number of other regions are showing a pattern of gradual decrease in the unemployment rate.
The largest increase in the unemployment rate was for Northern Ireland at 0.6 percentage points.
The unemployment rate for the North East remains the highest in the UK at 10.1%, followed by the West Midlands at 8.8%.
As stated earlier, the employment rate for London is a joint record high at 70.9%. The previous occasion when London had a similar employment rate was in the three months ending in June 2008, prior to a number of decreases during the recession. However, the unemployment rate for London still stands at 8.5% compared with 6.7% in the three months ending in June 2008. This is principally because the economic inactivity rate for London has fallen to a record low of 22.5% compared with 23.9% in the three months ending in June 2008.
This pattern has been repeated in a number of regions, with a recovery in employment rates being matched by falls in inactivity rates, meaning that unemployment rates are yet to return to the levels they were prior to the recession. This effect is particularly noticeable in regions that historically have the highest inactivity rates.
The Claimant Count for November 2013 compared with October 2013 is showing decreases in the count for both men and women across all regions of the UK. The decreases are of a similar size in all regions except for Northern Ireland, which is decreasing at a slower rate than the rest of the UK.
The employment rate for people aged from 16 to 64 for the UK was 72.0% for the period August to October 2013.
The regions with the highest rate in Great Britain were the South East at 76.0%, with the East of England at 75.9% and the South West at 74.1 %. The regions with the lowest rate were the North East at 67.9%, with the West Midlands and the North West both at 69.2%.
The regions with the largest increase in the employment rate on the previous period (May to July 2013) were Wales with an increase of 1.5 percentage points followed by the East Midlands with an increase of 1.2 percentage points and the North East with an increase of 0.7 percentage points. In Great Britain there were no decreases in the employment rate for any region, on the previous period. The UK rate increased by 0.4 percentage points.
Over the year the regions with the largest increase in the employment rate were Scotland with an increase of 2.2 percentage points, followed by London at 1.7 percentage points and Wales at 1.6 percentage points. The regions with the largest decrease in the employment rate were the West Midlands with a decrease of 0.8 percentage points and the South West with a decrease of 0.6 percentage points.
The unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over for the UK was 7.4% for the period August to October 2013.
The regions with the largest decrease in the unemployment rate on the previous period (May to July 2013) were the East of England at 1.1 percentage points and the West Midlands which decreased by 0.9 percentage points. Only two regions in Great Britain showed an increase in the unemployment rate. The South West increased by 0.3 percentage points and London increased by 0.1 percentage points. The UK rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points.
Over the year the regions with the largest changes in the unemployment rate were the East of England with a decrease of 1.3 percentage points, the North West with a decrease of 1.1 percentage points and the South West with an increase of 0.7 percentage points.
An interactive chart showing regional unemployment rates over time is available.
Workforce Jobs increased in 9 of the 11 regions of Great Britain between June 2013 and September 2013 with a decrease in the remaining 2 regions. The largest increase of 76,000 was in London, whilst the largest decrease of 2,000 was in Wales.
The East Midlands had the highest proportion of jobs in the production sector at 14.0% whilst London had the lowest proportion at 2.9%. For the service sector the situation reversed with London having the highest proportion at 91.6% whilst the East Midlands had the lowest proportion at 78.6%.
The seasonally adjusted Claimant Count rate for the UK was 3.8% in November 2013, down 0.1 percentage points from October, with the level down 36,700
The region with the highest rate in Great Britain was the North East at 6.1%, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. The next highest rates were in Yorkshire and The Humber at 5.0% and the West Midlands at 4.8%.
The region with the lowest rate was the South East at 2.3%. The next lowest rates were seen in the South West at 2.4% and the East of England at 3.0%.
For the period July 2012 to June 2013 the highest employment rate in Great Britain was South Northamptonshire at 88.9%. The next highest was Watford at 86.1% and Brentwood at 85.8%. The lowest rates were Middlesbrough at 57.0%, followed by Birmingham at 57.5% and Nottingham at 57.8%.
For the period July 2012 to June 2013 the highest unemployment rate in Great Britain was Birmingham at 16.5%. The next highest was Blaenau Gwent at 15.7% and Middlesbrough at 15.4%. The lowest rate was South Lakeland at 2.7% followed by Eden in Cumbria at 2.8%.
In November 2013 the local authority with the lowest proportion of the population aged from 16 to 64 years claiming Jobseekers Allowance in Great Britain were the Isles of Scilly at 0.5% followed by Stratford-on-Avon, Hart in Hampshire, Mid Sussex and Aberdeenshire at 0.8%. These were followed by twenty-two local authorities with a proportion of 1.0% or less. It was highest in Kingston upon Hull at 6.9%, followed by Middlesbrough at 6.8% and a further five local authorities with a proportion of 6.0% or more.
An interactive version of this map showing Claimant Count proportions by local authority over time is available. This map also shows Claimant Count proportions for males, females, 18 to 24 year olds and those claiming over 12 months.
The job density of an area is the number of jobs per head of resident population aged 16 to 64. In 2011 the highest jobs density in Great Britain was the City of London at 74.76 and the lowest was Lewisham at 0.39. Westminster (4.15), Camden (2.02) and Tower Hamlets (1.32), all in London were the next highest jobs densities. The highest jobs density outside London was Watford at 1.23. After Lewisham, the lowest jobs densities were Waltham Forest and East Renfrewshire both at 0.40, followed by Newham, Haringey and East Dunbartonshire all at 0.41.
Universal Credit will replace a number of means-tested benefits including the means-tested element of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). It will not replace contributory based JSA.
The Claimant Count measures the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed. Since October 1996 it has been a count of the number of people claiming JSA. Following a consultation in 2012 by ONS, it was agreed that, with the introduction of Universal Credit, the Claimant Count would include:
people claiming contribution-based JSA (which is not affected by the introduction of Universal Credit),
people claiming means-tested JSA during the transition period while this benefit is being gradually phased out, and
people claiming Universal Credit who are not earning and who are subject to a full set of labour market jobseeker requirements, that is required to be actively seeking work and available to start work.
On 3 December 2013, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published a statistical release providing data for the number of people claiming Universal Credit. This release shows that 2,030 people were claiming Universal Credit on 30 September 2013. This total includes all claimants of Universal Credit, not just those who were jobseekers.
The Claimant Count estimates from May 2013, published in this Statistical Bulletin, do not include claimants of Universal Credit. The absence of Universal Credit claimants is expected to have a small effect on the Claimant Count from May 2013. This assessment reflects the information published by DWP on 3 December 2013.
ONS will include jobseeker Universal Credit claims in the Claimant Count statistics as soon as possible.
One indication of the reliability of the key indicators in this bulletin can be obtained by monitoring the size of revisions. These summary measures are available in the Regional Labour Market Sampling Variability spreadsheet (41 Kb Excel sheet) available with this bulletin and show the size of revisions over the last five years. The revised data itself may be subject to sampling or other sources of error. The ONS standard presentation is to show five years worth of revisions (that is 60 observations for a monthly series, 20 for a quarterly series).