Amongst all of the Brexit chaos going on in the UK, we wanted to shine a light on some positive Employment statistics coming from the Office for National Statistics. They report that the employment rate in the UK is at its highest since 1971. The number of people in work in the UK reached a record of 32.54 million, this is fantastic.
Average earnings have increased 3.3% on the previous year with wage growth continuing to outpace inflation. The number of people out of work stayed relatively the same with only a small increase of around 8,000 at the back end of 2018. The number of people looking for work is now at a 40-year low. This has been helped by the sheer number of job vacancies; that stands at 853,000, again another record high.
This job explosion is helping some of the UK’s most disadvantaged groups find employment and provides opportunities across society.
This rise in numbers is due to the UK’s growing population and fewer people being classed as economically inactive; these are people who are on long term sick leave, students and people who have given up looking for a job altogether. The number of economically inactive people now stands at 8.6 million which is the lowest number on record.
In the face of massive Brexit uncertainty, businesses have still continued to hire, the number of people in work continues to go up. This has been the case for some years. The majority of new jobs being created are now full time, there are currently 24 million full-time jobs in the UK, another record.
Now is this just because us Brits are doing what we usually do best, ignoring the Brexit chaos and just getting on with it? Or is it that businesses don’t think that growth will slow and that rumours that it will are just political tactics and scaremongering?
The answer is we don't know....yet. This is because job market figures always being behind the rest of the economy. Companies hiring in the Autumn will have planned to do so in the summer when the political situation surrounding Brexit was a bit less nerve-wracking.
As a Nation, it's only right that we celebrate these excellent statistics and hope that it continues to be the case going forward. I’m sure we will see over the coming weeks and months.
If your company is looking to hire we'd be happy to talk. Give us a call on 0161 839 5353 and speak to one of our expert Recruitment Team.