Latest figures show London’s employment rate remains at high levels

Despite a slight fall in the numbers in employment, London’s employment rate (i.e. the proportion of London’s resident working age population in employment) in the three months to August 2016 remained unchanged on the previous quarter at 73.3 per cent, and up by 0.7 percentage points on a year earlier. Whilst 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 5.732 million in Q2 2016 – a new high since the measure began in 1996 and an increase of 137,000 (or 2.4 per cent) over the year.

London’s ILO unemployment rate in the three months to August 2016 was 6.1 per cent. This is up 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter and up 0.2 percentage points on the previous year – although these increases were also accompanied by increases in the proportion of London’s population actively seeking work (ie falls in the level of ‘inactivity’ in London). The timelier claimant count showed a very slight decrease in the numbers claiming unemployment related benefits in September 2016; with the rate remaining the same as the previous month at 1.8 per cent and down 0.1 percentage points on the year.

*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.

** Since June 2015, the labour market release headline measure of the Claimant Count includes some claimants of Universal Credit as well as JSA claimants. These Universal Credit estimates are still being developed by DWP. The ONS have therefore decided that the Claimant Count estimates including Universal Credit will continue to be designated as experimental statistics even though they are now the headline measure. A consistent series on this basis is currently available only back to November 2013.

Workless households in London

The ONS has recently released the latest statistics on workless households. The proportion of workless households in London was 12.7% in the quarter to June 2016 a fall of 1 percentage points on the year. This continues the general trend of decline seen since the data series began in 1996, where the proportion was nearly double. In the same period the proportion of households where all adults were working rose by 1.6 percentage points to 53.7%, and the proportion of mixed households fell by 0.6 percentage points to 33.5%.

Proportion of workless, working and mixed households in London and the UK, April-June 1996-2016

Read further GLA Intelligence Unit analysis of the workless household figures.

Employment rate and unemployment rate