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Labor market in the United Kingdom - Statistics & Facts

By the end of 2023, the employment rate of the United Kingdom was at one of its highest ever levels, with 75 percent of the working-age population in some form of paid work. As of the most recent figures, there are approximately 31.7 million people working in the United Kingdom. In general, the UK labor market has been in good health ever since the unemployment rate peaked at 8.5 percent in late 2011, following the global financial crisis of 2008. Even as economic growth slowed down from 2015 onwards, and Brexit introduced a degree of economic uncertainty to the UK, the country's labor market continued to improve. While the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 reversed these positive trends, the damage caused appears to have been temporary, with the most recent forecasts from the UK government anticipating unemployment to remain at low levels of around four to 4.6 percent until at least 2028.

Characteristics of UK workers

The vast majority of the UK's workforce are employed in the private sector, which employs around 27 million people, compared with the public sector which has a workforce of approximately 5.9 million people. Within the UK private sector, the industry sector which employs the most people is wholesale and retail trade, at over 4.9 million people. The National Health Service (NHS) is the largest employer in the public sector at over 1.98 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. The share of people who work from home jumped to 17.4 percent in 2020, and is likely to increase further in coming years, as businesses and employers adapt to the possibilities of a more remote workforce.

Hours and earnings

Full-time workers in the United Kingdom had an average annual salary of 34,963 British pounds, with annual earnings for men being 37,382 pounds, and for women 31,672 pounds. While the gender pay gap has been declining in recent years, there is evidently more work to be done to ensure men and women are afforded the same financial opportunities in the future. Other differences in pay exist between regions, with Londoners earning around 13,170 pounds a year more than workers in North East England, while there are also significant differences in what people of different ethnicities earn an hour. Overall, the UK workforce collectively worked more than a billion hours a week at the end of 2023, with this figure at just 841 million in June 2020, which was the fewest cumulative hours worked since 1994 and a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by D. Clark, Feb 23, 2024

Key insights

Number of people employed in the UK
32.8m
Employment rate in the UK
75.5%
Region with the highest employment rate UK
South West
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Number of people employed in private sector businesses in the United Kingdom in 2023, by sector (in 1,000s)

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Number of people employed in the private sector in the UK 2023, by sector

Number of public sector employees in the United Kingdom as of 2023, by industry (in 1,000s)

Government Employment

Number of public sector employees UK 2023, by industry

Number of job vacancies in the United Kingdom from June 2001 to March 2024 (in 1,000s)

Employment

Number of job vacancies in the UK 2001-2024

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Further reportsGet the best reports to understand your industry

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Country Report United Kingdom 2020
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