The ONS have released the latest Labour Market Overviewcovering the months September 2021 – November 2021, there is additional data that covers December.
What Does This Mean For Youth Employment?
Headlines for young people
This data explores what this looks like for young people (16-24 years old).
In work
The employment rate is 53.7%, up 1 percentage point (ppt) on the previous quarter, but down 1.9 ppts since February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
- There are 3.6 million in employment, up 65,000 on the quarter, but still down 215,000 on pre-pandemic levels.
- Between December 2020 and December 2021, there was a 547,000 increase in payrolled employees aged under 25 years.
Unemployment
The unemployment rate is 11.1%, down 1.1 ppts on the previous quarter, and down by 0.2 ppts on pre-pandemic levels. .
- 450,000 are unemployed; down 45,000 on the previous quarter and down 40,000, since February 2020.
- 79% of those are aged 18-24, 21% are aged 16-17 years old.
- The claimant count in December 2022 stands at 310,000; this is a decrease 3.4% on the month but is still up by 32% on pre-pandemic levels
Economically inactive
The economic inactivity rate for young people is 39.7%, down 0.2 ppts on the previous quarter and up 2.4 ppt since the pandemic.
- There are 2.7 million economically inactive young people; down 18,000 on the previous quarter, up 105,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. .
- Estimates for young people not in employment, full-time education, and training (NEET) stand at 900,000, up 50,000 on the quarter and down 90,000 since February 2020.
Headlines for all ages
In work
The employment rate is 75.5%, an increase of 0.2 ppts on the previous quarter, but 1.1 ppts lower than before the pandemic.
- There are 32.5 million people in employment, up by 250,000 on the previous quarter, but down by 598,000 since February 2020.
PAYE data shows 29.5 million are in paid employment, a rise of 4.8% over the previous 12 months. See bar chart 1 for the disparities across different sectors.
- All regions are now above pre-pandemic levels.
- All sectors highlighted experienced a decrease in employee growth around April 2020, with the smallest decrease being in health and social work. See graph 1 for a breakdown by industry.
Total actual weekly hours worked in the UK increased by 2.6 million hours from the previous quarter, to 1.02 billion hours. However, this is still 33.5 million hours below pre-pandemic levels.
The redundancy rate is 2.7 per thousand, an increase of 0.5 per thousand on the quarter. At its peak in September to November 2020, the redundancy rate stood at 14.4 per thousand.
Unemployment
The unemployment rate is 4.1%, 0.4 ppts lower than the previous quarter, 0.1 ppt higher than before the pandemic.
- 1.4 million people are unemployed, a fall of 128,000 on the quarter but up 18,000 since February 2020.
- The fall in employment is being driven by a rise in part-time workers and those on zero-hour contracts, the majority of the latter are young people.
The claimant count stands at 1.8 million, a decrease of 2.2% on the previous month.
The number of job vacancies in December 2021 was just short of 1.5 million, a new record high. Up 128,000 (or 11.4%) on the quarter. See graph 2 for a breakdown by industry.
Economically inactive
The economic inactivity rate stands at 21.3%, up 0.2 ppts on the previous quarter and 1 ppt higher than before the pandemic.
- 8.8 million people are economically inactive, up 66,000 on the quarter and up 411,000 since February 2020.
- The increase in economic inactivity compared with the previous three-month period was driven by those aged 50 to 64 years
- 26.3% of those economically inactive are students, 5.7% are long-term sick.
Our Commentary
An initial look at today’s labour market data for all ages tells a story of success, with low unemployment and “record” employment rates. This is by no means ‘bad news’ – the Plan for Jobs and other Government investments have gone some way in averting the 1 million unemployment crisis.
It is important to raise a number of cautions as the labour market continues to tighten:
- the number of people in work is down by around 600,000 compared to pre-crisis levels
- vacancies have hit another record and unemployment has fallen – this means less unemployed people are available per job opportunity
- economic inactivity continues to rise – driven by ill health (long and short term), younger workers not in education and older workers retiring early are driving the rise in economic inactivity.
This raises the question – what can we do to support young people?
“We must do better for young people – we have to see policies addressing the systemic challenges and barriers young people face. The Levelling Up agenda has to support young people and their specific needs, in particular creating more quality work opportunities in their local area, anxiety and mental challenges and not feeling work ready. There is much to do and losing sight of that now will risk leaving young people even further behind.”
Laura-Jane Rawlings, CEO, Youth Employment UK
