The ONS have released the latest Labour Market Overview covering the months July 2021 – September 2021, there is additional data that covers October.

What Does This Mean For Youth Employment?

Headlines for young people

This data explores what this looks like for young people (16-24 years old).

In work:

The employment rate is 53.0%, up 1.3 percentage points (ppts) on the previous quarter, down 2.5 ppts since February 2020 (pre-pandemic).

There are 3.6 million in employment, up 90,000 on the quarter, but still down 220,000 since February 2020.

PAYE real time data shows that between October 2020 – 2021, 500,000 of the increase in pay rolled employees are aged younger than 25 years.

13.4% of all part-time workers are aged 16-24 years old – this has returned to similar levels seen pre-pandemic.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate is 11.7%, down 1.4 ppt on the previous quarter, unchanged since February 2020.

475,000 are unemployed; down 55,000 on the previous quarter and down 30,000, since February 2020.

79.8% of those are aged 18-24, 20.2% are aged 16-17 years old.

Of those unemployed:

310,000 have been so for up to six months, down 15,000 on the previous quarter and down 40,000 on pre-pandemic levels.

80,000 have been so for between six and twelve months, down 30,000 on the previous quarter and largely unchanged on pre-pandemic levels.

85,000 have been so for over 12 months, down 15.000 on the quarter, but up 15,000 on pre-pandemic levels.

20,000 have been so for more than 24 months, a fall of 10,000 on the quarter and a fall of 5,000 on the year.

The claimant count in October 2021 stands at 350,000; this is a decrease of 11,000 on the month (-2.9%).

Economically inactive

The economic inactivity rate for young people is 40%, down 0.5 ppts on the previous quarter and up 2.8 ppt since February 2020.

There are 2.7 million economically inactive young people; down 40,000 on the previous quarter, up 160,000 since February 2020.

Estimates for young people not in employment, full-time education, and training (NEET) stand at 880,000, up 30,000 on the quarter and down 95,000 since March 2020.

Headlines For All Ages

In work

The employment rate is 75.4%, an increase of 0.4 ppts on the previous quarter, but 1.1 ppts lower than before the pandemic.

There are 32.5 million people in employment, up by 250,000 on the previous quarter, but down by 550,000 since March 2020.

PAYE data shows 29.3 million are in paid employment, up 160,000 (04 0.6%) on the quarter, and by 1.14 million (or 4%) over the previous 12 months. See bar chart 1 for the disparities across different sectors.

All regions except London are now above pre-coronavirus levels.. However growth has not been even throughout the regions; numbers of payrolled employees in the UK per region ranges from 768,000 in Northern Ireland to 4,132,000 in the South East in October 2021.

‘Wholesale and retail’, ‘Health and social work’ and ‘Education’ (the three largest sectors in the UK) account for 40% of the UK employees. Administrative and support services, manufacturing, professional, scientific and technical, and accommodation and food service activities account for a further 30%.

Total actual weekly hours worked in the UK increased by 25.2 million hours from the previous quarter, to 1.03 billion hours. However, this is still 25.6 million hours below pre-pandemic levels (March 2020).

The redundancy rate is 3.7 per thousand, an increase of by 0.2 per thousand on the quarter. At its peak in September to November 2020, the redundancy rate stood at 14.4 per thousand.

Read the full article, including Youth Employment UK’s commentary at www.youthemployment.org.uk/labour-market-statistics-november-2021.