What you need to know about the labour market - and how the trends are guiding our work for members.
The latest ONS statistics from May to July 2023 show increasing signs of softening in the labour market. The employment rate has decreased, while unemployment and inactivity rates have risen. And it’s the first quarter in more than a year that vacancies have fallen below a million.
Those inactive because of long-term sickness increased to another record high. Positively, those inactive because they were looking after family or home decreased to a record low. The importance of getting people who want to be in work, back into work helps explain why the CBI focused its policy asks at the Spring Budget on childcare funding and workplace health incentives. This issue continues to be a priority for our work, as the labour market still remains tight and labour shortages have a big impact on our members.
In better news, growth in regular pay was 7.8% in the quarter to July 2023 – the same as the previous
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