London’s workforce jobs and employment rate remain at near record high

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. This is a near record high. The number of jobs was up by 23 thousand from the previous quarter (driven by strong growth in admin & support service activities) and up 106,000 (or 1.9 per cent) over the year (with strong growth in the human health & social work, admin & support services and info & communication sectors).

London’s employment rate (i.e. the proportion of London’s resident working age population in employment) in the three months to January 2017 decreased by 0.2 percentage points on the previous quarter to 73.5 per cent. However, London’s employment rate in recent months has been historically high so the latest employment rate still represents a 0.7 percentage point increase on the previous year.

London’s ILO unemployment rate in the three months to January 2017 was 5.6 per cent. This is up 0.2 percentage points on the previous quarter and down 0.5 percentage points on the previous year. The timelier Claimant Count** showed a slight decrease in the numbers claiming unemployment related benefits in February 2017, but not enough to change the Claimant Rate, which remains at 1.9 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 definition 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), November-January 2014 to 2017

ILO Unemployment Rate (aged 16 and over), November-January 2014 to 2017