London employment rate remains at near record high

London’s employment rate (i.e. the proportion of London’s resident working age population in employment) in the three months to February 2017 fell by 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter to 73.4 per cent. Year-on-year there has been an increase in the employment rate of 0.4 percentage points. It is not clear if the recent downward trend will continue.  The UK employment rate has risen 0.1 percentage points in the past three months, and by 0.5 percentage points over the year to 74.6 per cent.

Although not updated this month, the number of workforce jobs in London (i.e. the number of jobs located in London, whether or not they are taken by residents of London), reached 5.73 million in Q4 2016, up 23,000 (or 0.4 percentage points) over the quarter, and 106,000 (or 1.9 percentage points) over the year.

London’s ILO unemployment rate in the three months to February 2017 was 5.9 per cent. This is up 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter and down 0.3 percentage points on the previous year. The timelier Claimant Count** showed a small (0.1 percentage point) increase in the numbers claiming unemployment related benefits in London, with the Claimant Rate for March 2017 2.0 per cent.

*All figures are seasonally adjusted. Rates are based on working age (16 – 64 male and female), with the exception of unemployment rate which is age 16 and above.
** ONS have ceased reporting on the claimant count as an official statistic as the roll-out of Universal Credit replaces Jobseekers’ Allowance. This is because of differences in definitional and administrative processes between the two benefits, and affects seasonality. We will continue to include the claimant count figure in these updates but will remove the year-on-year comparisons. This will be kept under review.

Working Age Employment Rate (aged 16 – 64), December-February 2014 to 2017

ILO Unemployment Rate (aged 16 and over), December-February 2014 to 2017