What is happening in 2020 for the labour market?

Understanding what is happening in the UK labour market is not always as easy as it seems. National trends often cover such a broad and diverse number of people, situation types and alike that they can misread the results. London is not insulated from recessionary markets, but it does have a consistency for growth that other parts of the country can't always sustain.

What we can see from the Office for Nation Statistics in January reflect data collected from the previous year for September to November 2019.

Main points

• The UK employment rate was estimated at a record high of 76.3%, 0.6 percentage points higher than a
• year earlier and 0.5 percentage points up on the previous quarter.
• The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 3.8%, 0.2 percentage points lower than a year earlier but
• largely unchanged on the previous quarter.
• The UK economic inactivity rate was estimated at a record low of 20.6%, 0.4 percentage points lower than
• the previous year and the previous quarter.
• Estimated annual growth in average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain remained unchanged
• at 3.2% for total pay (including bonuses) and slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% for regular pay (excluding
• bonuses); the annual growth in total pay was weakened by unusually high bonus payments paid in October
• 2018 compared with more typical average bonus payments paid in October 2019.
• In real terms (after adjusting for inflation), annual growth in total pay is estimated to be 1.6%, and annual
• growth in regular pay is estimated to be 1.8%.
• There were an estimated 805,000 vacancies in the UK for October to December 2019; this is 11,000 fewer
• than the previous quarter and 49,000 fewer than a year earlier.
• The data in this bulletin come from surveys of households and businesses. It is not possible to survey every
• household and business each month, so these statistics are estimates based on samples.

Broadly speaking then the labour market is in good shape, demand in London remain high and sourcing the right talent is all about the network you have to get your talent needs met.

Here is a link to the full report.