Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
UK labor market - Statistics & Facts
At the start of 2025, the employment rate of the United Kingdom is at one of its highest ever levels, with 75 percent of the working-age population in some form of paid work, almost 34 million people. In general, the UK labor market has been in good health ever since the unemployment rate peaked at 8.5 percent in late 2011, after the global financial crisis of 2008. An uptick in unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic was soon followed by a hot labor market in 2022, with indicators returning to more usual levels by 2024.
Uncertain outlook for 2025
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, the unemployment rate for the UK is expected to be 4.5 percent, which although relatively low was uprated from a previous forecast of 4.1 percent at the end of 2024. There was also quite a large drop in payrolled employment in March 2025, ahead of a tax rise for UK businesses in April. The number of job vacancies also fell to its lowest levels in almost four years, making it harder for those looking for work to find employment. At a time when the UK government is trying to encourage people to return to the labor force from long-term sickness, or deal with an escalating problem of economically inactive youths these recent developments have the potential to exacerbate these particular problems.Characteristics of UK workers
The vast majority of the UK's workforce are employed in the private sector, which employs around 27.8 million people, compared with the public sector which has a workforce of approximately 6.1 million people. Within the UK private sector, the industry sector which employs the most people is wholesale and retail trade, at around 4.9 million people. The National Health Service (NHS) is the largest employer in the public sector at over two million people, and also the UK's single biggest employer overall. Although working patterns have become a lot more flexible in recent years, most people in the UK are still working full-time rather than part-time. Another significant development in the labor force, is the increasing number of self-employed workers which reached over five million in January 2020, before falling to around 4.2 million workers after COVID-19. In early 2025, 37 percent of UK workers exclusively travelled to their workplace, with 26 percent hybrid working, and around 14 percent only working from home.
