October 2025 UK Economy and Labour Market Report
October 21, 2025
Job postings up 11.3% in September as hiring warms up post-summer. Unemployment 4.8%, employment 75.1%, inflation 3.8% – and what it means for 2026 planning.
The indicators we watch when planning change and transformation capability. Every figure comes straight from the Office for National Statistics or the Bank of England, and shows the period it covers.
Checked 11 November 2026. Official statistics are published monthly or quarterly, so each figure shows its own reference period rather than today's date.
Sources. Office for National Statistics (series codes shown on each card) and the Bank of England (IUDBEDR), both Crown copyright and reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are fetched directly from those sources, not copied from summaries. The small chart on each card plots the last 13 published readings for that same series.
Job postings up 11.3% in September as hiring warms up post-summer. Unemployment 4.8%, employment 75.1%, inflation 3.8% – and what it means for 2026 planning.
Unemployment rises to 4.7% as the market cools, but employment edges up to 75.2% and inactivity falls. Earnings growth holds at 4.8% – and employers gain candidate choice.
Vacancies down 63,000 to 736,000 and payrolled employees falling, but the pace of decline is slowing – the weakest rate of vacancy contraction since September 2024.
Active job adverts show steady demand for workers despite slow progress in the wider economy – employers hiring cautiously amid economic and political uncertainty.
Our bitesize read on the UK labour market in May 2023 – the headline statistics and what they meant for hiring and workforce planning at the time.
Our read on the UK labour market in January 2023 – the headline statistics and what they meant for hiring and workforce planning at the time.