Rising unemployment and widening inequalities May 19th, 2026 by Pauline Bucher Key Points: Background London’s unemployment rate has been rising for over two years. The headline, seasonally adjusted, Labour Force Survey rate was 7.4% in the three months to March 2026 (or 6.6% on a four-quarter moving average basis). Since early 2024, the rate has consistently remained above its pre-pandemic benchmark of just under 5%, indicating…
Unemployment in key charts: Young Londoners hit hardest by labour market slowdown March 19th, 2026 by Pauline Bucher Background London’s unemployment rate rose to 7.5% in the last quarter of 2025 (non-seasonally adjusted). While London has historically seen higher unemployment than other parts of the United Kingdom, the gap was larger than usual (2.1 percentage points then in Q4 2025 compared to 0.5 percentage points in Q4 2019). That is despite the UK unemployment rate at the same time…
London’s Economy Today editorial – January 2026 January 29th, 2026 by Daryl Rozario, Jubair Ahmed, Gordon Douglass and Sixia Zhang UK inflation picks up in December The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data on December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation this month. This showed that CPI inflation rose by 3.4% in the 12 months to December 2025; up from 3.2% in November (Figure 1). This was higher than expected by most surveyed economists who…
London’s Economy Today editorial – July 2025 July 31st, 2025 by Daryl Rozario Jubair Ahmed Gordon Douglass Ali Ögcem and Sixia Zhang UK’s GDP contracts for a second month in a row in May The latest monthly UK GDP data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed an unexpected contraction of 0.1% in May 2025 (Figure 1). This was the second monthly decline in a row following a 0.3% drop in April and was counter to…
London’s Economy Today editorial – May 2025 May 29th, 2025 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, Jubair Ahmed, and Sixia Zhang UK sees strong GDP growth at the start of the year Data published this month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the UK economy grew strongly in the first quarter of 2025. Output increased by 0.7% in Q1 2025 after growing by 0.1% in Q4 2024 (Figure 1). This rate of growth…
London’s Economy Today editorial – September 2024 September 26th, 2024 by Daryl Rozario, Ali Ögcem, Gordon Douglass, Sixia Zhang UK economy doesn’t grow for a second month in a row The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data this month that showed that output in the UK economy did not grow in July compared to a month earlier (Figure 1). This follows on from no growth in June either. Figure 1: Looking at the…
Detailed employee jobs report – 2022 (summer 2024 update) July 31st, 2024 by Yiqiao Chen The total number of employee jobs in London rose steeply in 2022 as the capital recovered from the pandemic, adding 297,500 jobs (6%) in the year to reach 5,595,000. That was also well above the pandemic peak of 5,239,000 in 2019 (7%). This blog delves into the detailed data based on the ONS’ Business Register…
London’s Economy Today editorial – March 2024 March 28th, 2024 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, Sixia Zhang UK economy experienced growth in January The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published monthly UK GDP data for January 2024 earlier this month. This data showed that the UK economy grew by 0.2% in January, which follows on from a monthly decline of 0.1% in December 2023 (Figure 1). Figure 1: Both the services sector…
The State of London v4 January 22nd, 2024 by Adam Yousef On 22 January 2024, the GLA’s City Intelligence Unit released the fourth version of its bi-annual State of London report – a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of London’s key economic and social outcomes. The report covers numerous datasets that update at different intervals, but most of the data presented reflect the state of affairs in…
The impact of Brexit on London’s economy – 2023 report January 11th, 2024 by Daryl Rozario Since the June 2016 Referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union, there have been many studies and assessments of that decision’s impact on the UK and its various economic sectors and regions, including London. Broadly speaking, the literature concurs that Brexit has been exerting pressures on the London and UK economies, to…
London’s Economy Today editorial – October 2023 October 26th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, and Mike Hope UK inflation fails to fall in September Office for National Statistics (ONS) data that was published this month showed inflation didn’t fall in September. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation remained at 6.7%, unchanged from August (Figure 1). Most economists had expected a small drop in September’s inflation figure. The ONS noted that the biggest downward…
London’s Economy Today editorial – August 2023 August 31st, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, Mike Hope and Jasmine Farquharson UK economy grew in the second quarter Data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the UK economy grew marginally in the second quarter of 2023. Output increased by 0.2% between April and June 2023 after increasing by 0.1% in the previous quarter. However, despite this subdued growth UK GDP remains 0.2%…
London’s Economy Today editorial – July 2023 July 27th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, James Watson, Jasmine Farqharson Inflation eases, but households still under pressure For the first time in almost two years, June’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation release offered some good news in that the actual figure was below what forecasters expected. The cost of living crisis is far from over though, and price increases are still extremely rapid, but the…
State of London report – June 2023 update July 4th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario On Monday the 26th of June, the City Intelligence Unit (CIU) published the third version of its bi-annual State of London report. This report represents arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative evidence base for the economic and social realities experienced by London as a whole and Londoners of different backgrounds across a broad set of…
London’s Economy Today editorial – May 2023 May 25th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario London accelerates ahead of UK in latest growth data Output growth in London was the fastest in the UK, according to the latest regional GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). And while the data only run to Q3 2022, more recent figures suggest the capital continues to grow ahead of the rest…
London’s Economy Today editorial – April 2023 April 27th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Mike Hope, James Watson, Jasmine Farquharson Inflation still in double digits as doubts arise about persistent price pressures The UK continues to face inflation above 10% according to the latest figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation slowed in March 2023 but still came in at 10.1% year on year. While energy prices remain the…
London’s Economy Today editorial – Issue 247 – March 2023 March 30th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, Mike Hope, and James Watson Cost of living crisis not easing yet, despite Government measures Inflation rose unexpectedly in February, with signs that some price pressures may take longer to ease. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation unexpectedly hit 10.4% year-on-year last month, up from 10.1% in January. The three main reasons were prices for restaurants and cafes, food and clothing.…
London’s Economy Today – editorial – Issue 245 – Jan 2023 January 26th, 2023 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, James Watson and Jasmine Farquharson Inflation turning a corner, but households still face pinch points ahead Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation eased for a second consecutive month in December, according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest release. But at 10.5% year on year, headline CPI price growth remains near the highest level in 40 years. The latest data…
London’s Economy Today – editorial – October 2022 October 27th, 2022 by Daryl Rozario, Mike Hope, James Watson, and Jasmine Farquharson Reverberations of mini-Budget continue to echo through the economy Last month’s LET editorial discussed the tax cuts (worth £45 billion in 2026/27) announced in the mini-budget on 23 September 2022. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has reversed £32 billion worth of these measures, including the planned reductions in corporation tax, and the…
London’s Economy Today editorial – August 2022 August 25th, 2022 by Daryl Rozario, Gordon Douglass, Jasmine Farquharson, and Mike Hope Inflation rises strongly again Annual UK Consumer Price Index inflation (CPI) rose to 10.1% in July, up 0.7 percentage points from the June rate of 9.4%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the highest rate of inflation since 1982, according to ONS modelling. Rising food and non-alcoholic drink prices made the…
London’s Economy Today – November 2021 editorial November 25th, 2021 by Daryl Rozario, Mike Hope, James Watson, and Jasmine Farquharson Inflation picks up sharply in October, with higher rates still to come October saw annual CPI inflation accelerate sharply to 4.2% from 3.1% in September. This annual reading is a ten-year high, while the monthly price increase of 1.1 percentage points is perhaps even more striking as the fastest in nearly 30 years. While inflation…
London’s Economy Today – August 2021 editorial August 26th, 2021 by Mike Hope and Jasmine Farquharson London’s economy recovers strongly although weaknesses remain This month the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its first estimate of London GDP growth for Q4 2020 and GLA Economics published its latest scenarios for the London economy. The ONS data show that the drop in London’s economic output in 2020 was less deep than for…
