UK Employment Slightly Up in Third Quarter

Source: Office for National Statistics

Employment in the United Kingdom posted a slight increase in the third quarter of the year, as both unemployment and economic activity both slipped from the previous quarter. EWU is up 0.43% premarket.

• The employment rate was recorded at 75.3%, posting a 0.5-percentage point climb from the previous quarter, equivalent to 32.416 million. 
• The latest data remains 1.3 percentage points below the levels recorded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, from December 2019 to February 2020.
• The employment rate has continued to decrease from the start of the pandemic in December 2019 but has noted an uptrend since the end of 2020.
• The unemployment rate was estimated at 4.5%, 0.4 percentage points lower than the previous quarter but 0.5% higher pre-pandemic.
• Economic inactivity stood at 21.1%, 0.2 percentage points down from the previous quarter but 0.9 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.