Research Briefing
Published Tuesday, 26 January, 2021
This paper provides figures for the number of people claiming unemployment benefits (the “claimant count”) by parliamentary constituency, as well as a summary of the latest labour market statistics for the UK as a whole.
People claiming unemployment benefits by constituency (6 MB, PDF)
For further analysis of the emerging effect of coronavirus on the labour market, see Library briefing Coronavirus: Impact on the labour market.
A briefing paper and data will be published later on today.
This paper provides figures for the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits by parliamentary constituency, as well as a summary of the latest labour market statistics for the UK as a whole.
Unemployment reached 1.72 million in September-November 2020, its highest level since July-September 2015. The unemployment rate increased to 5.0% for the first time since 2016.
Redundancies reached the highest level since comparable records began in 1995, however, weekly data shows the level peaked in September. Total hours worked increased from the previous quarter in September to November, despite covering months when some lockdown measures were reintroduced. Vacancies showed some signs of recovery, but this has slowed in October-December 2020.
Annual growth in employee pay strengthened, but despite this pay growth remains subdued as there was a fall in the proportion of lower-paid employees. In 2020, 15.1% of all employee jobs were low-paid, which is the lowest proportion since comparable records began in 1997.
Key figures
In September-November 2020, the number of people aged 16+ in employment was 32.50 million, 88,000 fewer than the previous quarter and 398,000 fewer than the previous year. The employment rate was 75.2%, down from 75.6% in the previous quarter.
The UK unemployment rate rose to 5.0%, up from 4.5% in the previous quarter. Unemployment levels rose by 202,000 on the quarter to 1.72 million.
8.59 million people aged 16-64 were economically inactive, 33,000 less than the previous quarter. The inactivity rate was 20.7%, down from 20.8% in the quarter.
The total number of weekly hours worked in the three months to November 2020 was 979.9 million. This was 89.0 million more than the previous quarter but 74.2 million less than the same period in 2019.
Redundancies increased by 168,00 on the quarter and a record 280,000 on the year to its highest quarterly recorded level of 395,000 since comparable records began in 1995.
Average wages increased in real terms in the three months to November 2020, with an annual change of 2.8% including bonuses and 2.8% excluding bonuses.
The claimant count increased slightly between November and December 2020 to 2.6 million; Since March 2020, when the lockdown began, the claimant count has increased by 1.4 million, but the majority of this increase was seen at the start of the first lockdown in March-May 2020.
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