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Summary
- The unemployment rate in the UK fell marginally in April 2021 to 4.7%
- Number of people seeking the unemployment benefits dropped by 92,600
- Employees on payroll in May 2021 jumped by 141,000, ONS estimate suggests
With the continued support from the government-aided job retention scheme and the mounting hopes of a faster-than-expected economic recovery, the employment Activity in the United Kingdom has continued to improve.
The unemployment rate in the UK fell marginally in April 2021 to 4.7%, largely driven by the easements done by the government removing the stern lockdown restrictions, allowing a large number of commercial settings to reopen.
The ever-expanding scale of the immunisation programme in the UK has substantially helped in alleviating the troubles for the corporates, while the extension state-backed furlough scheme until September 2021 has been quite eventful in the maintaining a number of jobs.
According to the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the absolute number of unemployed people in Great Britain dropped to 1.61 million in the three months to April 2021, down by 90,000 individuals. On the other hand, the employment rate registered a quarterly growth of 20 basis points to 75.2%.
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Supporting an all-round recovery and gradually increasing consumer confidence, the number of people seeking the unemployment benefits dropped by 92,600 to 2.5 million in May 2021, recognising the biggest decline in the claimant count since November 1996.
The comprehensive recovery in various sectors has considerably supported the UK labour market, while the extended benefits from the wage-subsidy scheme and mushroomed reach of the vaccination programme have cushioned the adversities.
A glance at UK labour market
- According to the early estimates by the ONS, the total number of the payrolled employees in May 2021 jumped by 141,000, nearly 0.5% to 28.5 million.
- The total number of people who were on payroll employment in May 2021 was higher by 197,000 employees as compared to April 2021.
- However, the number is still 1.9% lower as compared to February 2020, the penultimate month under the pre-pandemic era.
- On a yearly basis, the health and social work sector has contributed majorly in the rise of payrolled employees between May 2020 and May 2021, a jump of 195,000 more employees.
- Barring the City of London, the number of employees on payroll in the UK in May 2021 has soared in all the regions, but the level has remained below the pre-pandemic mark.
- Meanwhile, the number of redundancies in some sectors has apparently bounced above the pre-pandemic levels, primarily due to the country-wide plans of reopening.
- As per the ONS data, the job vacancies in March to May 2021 stood at 758,000. The open vacancies in the UK in the January-March quarter of 2020 were only 27,000 higher as compared to the vacancies in the three months to May 2021.
