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  5. UK Unemployment Rate
Employment

UK Unemployment Rate

The proportion of economically active people aged 16 and over who are unemployed.

5.2

%

unchanged from previous month

Historical data

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View as table
UK Unemployment Rate — historical data
PeriodValue (%)
Jan 20244.2
Feb 20244.3
Mar 20244.4
Apr 20244.4
May 20244.2
Jun 20244.2
Jul 20244.1
Aug 20244.3
Sep 20244.3
Oct 20244.4
Nov 20244.4
Dec 20244.4
Jan 20254.4
Feb 20254.5
Mar 20254.6
Apr 20254.7
May 20254.7
Jun 20254.7
Jul 20254.8
Aug 20255
Sep 20255.1
Oct 20255.1
Nov 20255.2
Dec 20255.2

Methodology

Unemployment figures come from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), a quarterly sample survey of approximately 37,000 households. A person is classed as unemployed if they are: without a job, available to start work within two weeks, and have actively sought work in the past four weeks (ILO definition). Seasonally adjusted.

  • unemployment
  • labour market
  • employment

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) – Labour Force Survey

Published: 18 March 2025

Last updated on this site: 19 March 2026

Data used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.