Below you will find the latest labour market statistics for February, the data in this piece is taken from the ONS report.
Headlines For October To December 2019
- employment rate was estimated at a record high of 76.5%, 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.4 percentage points up on the previous quarter.
- unemployment rate was estimated at 3.8%, 0.2 percentage points lower than a year earlier and 0.1 lower than the previous quarter.
Youth Unemployment 16 – 24 Year Olds
481,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed in OctoberDecember 2019, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous quarter and a decrease of 30,000 from the year before
- The Youth Unemployment rate is 11.3%, this is down from 11.9% in the previous quarter and from 11.8% a year before.
- The UK Youth Employment rate is 55%, up 0.4% from the previous quarter
- 59,000 people aged 16-24 had been unemployed for over 12 months in October-December 2019 (12% of unemployed 16-24 year olds).
Our View
We are welcoming discussions with colleagues across the sector to explore more effective ways of using and categorising the data around young people and their employment journeys, the sector is broadly in agreement that this data only tells us so much.
We are still hearing from young people that they are facing many barriers to entering work, a lack of work experience, careers advice and mental health worries are just some of the growing concerns. Our Youth Employment Manifesto covers many of the big issues young people are facing, we remain committed to eradicating youth employment and working with all stakeholders to drive real change.
