London Labour Market Update
December 2025
The headline rate of unemployment jumped to its highest level in a decade, according to the latest labour market data for London released by the Office for National Statistics. The number of workforce jobs and payrolled employees fell and real earnings declined.
London resident payrolled employee numbers continued to fall with Inner London boroughs seeing the largest declines over the last year, and only a few boroughs seeing growth. Workforce jobs, a wider measure of employment in London which includes non-residents as well as the self-employed, also fell on the quarter. However, self-employment jobs continue to show more weakness than employee jobs on that measure.
Annual pay growth slowed markedly in October to below the rate of inflation, leaving annual real median pay growth in negative territory for the first time since 2023.
The jump in unemployment in London also highlighted labour market uncertainty because the ONS Claimant Count barely changed. That might indicate that data quality for unemployment remains an issue and we note that the confidence interval for London’s unemployment rate remains very wide at +/- 1.1 percentage points.
Due to recent data volatility, we adopt ONS’ prudent language when reporting quarterly changes in employment rates, unemployment rates and inactivity rates. The focus should be on the general movements rather than the exact figures. As data collection improvements feed into published results, there is a possibility of further revisions. This report uses several data sources and indicators, which need to be taken together to get a reliable picture of London’s labour market.
Summary of key points
The most timely estimate of payrolled employees (subject to revision) showed a decrease of 10,400 (-0.2 percentage points) in the number of payrolled employees in London between October and November 2025, and a decrease of 0.9% on the year.
The employment rate in London was estimated at 74.0% for the three months ending October 2025, a decrease of 1.8pp on the same period in the previous year, and a decrease on the quarter. London’s employment rate was slightly lower than the UK average (74.9%).
London’s unemployment rate was estimated at 6.8%, an increase on the quarter and an increase of 0.8pp from a year earlier. The UK average was 5.1%.
London’s inactivity rate (the measure of those not looking and/or not available to work) was estimated at 20.7%. This was an increase of 1.3pp on the previous year, and an increase on the quarter. It is lower than the UK-wide estimate of 21.0%.
Workforce jobs in London
The Workforce Jobs series provides quarterly estimates of the
number of jobs in the UK and is the preferred source of jobs broken down
by region of workplace and industry. The two main categories of
employment are employee jobs and self-employed jobs.
Latest data
The latest data for September 2025 show that:
The total number of workforce jobs in London was estimated at 6.4 million, a decrease of 7,960 jobs on the quarter and a decrease of 1,500 on the year.
Employee jobs was estimated at 5.8 million, an increase of 33,000 on the quarter. Self-employed jobs were estimated at 0.58 million, a decrease of 43,500, with government trainees and HM Forces accounting for the balance.
On the year, employee jobs saw an increase of 74,800 and self-employment jobs saw a decrease of 77,000
Source: ONS Workforce Jobs.
Note: The margin of error for all
jobs is +/- 1.6% for London and +/- 0.6% for the UK. March 2020
indicated by dotted line.
Sector changes
The change in the number of workforce jobs varies by sector of London’s economy. Between September 2024 and September 2025*:
Arts & recreation recorded the largest percentage decrease in jobs in London (-25,700 or -11.2%). This was followed by Manufacturing (-14,200 or -10.1%) and Transport & storage (-26,000 or -8.6%).
The following industry groups shown in the chart saw the largest positive percentage change in jobs in London: Real estate activities (13,900 or 9.3%), Other services (13,000 or 8.0%) and Education (20,200 or 4.7%).
Source: ONS Workforce Jobs.
Note: The margin of error for all
jobs is +/- 1.6% for London and +/- 0.6% for the UK.
Payrolled employees
The count of payrolled employees from HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) RTI dataset offers a timely measure of labour market trends:
Early estimates indicate that there were around 4.4 million payrolled employees living in London in November 2025, a fall of 10,400 from October.
The latest London estimate represents a decrease of 39,700 (0.9%) on the previous year (November 2024) compared to a decrease of 0.6% UK-wide.
Compared to the pre-pandemic (February 2020) level, the number of payrolled employees in London was up by 198,000 or 4.8%. This compares to an increase of 4.2% across the UK.
The figures for November 2025 in the RTI dataset are provided to give an indication of the likely level of employees as well as median pay in the latest period. They are of lower quality and may be subject to significant revision in future releases.
Number of payrolled employees
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
March 2020 indicated by dotted line.
Change on previous year, within London
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
Change on previous year, UK regions
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
Employee pay and inflation
The RTI dataset also provides information on the nominal monthly pay of payrolled employees living in London. This can be adjusted for inflation to estimate real pay over time.
The median pay is an average which measures the middle point in the range of recorded monthly employee salaries.
In November 2025:
Median monthly pay in London was £2,980, an increase of 2.8% on the year.
In the UK overall, median pay was £2,540, up by 2.7% on the year.
CPIH (consumer price inflation including owner-occupiers’ housing costs) is a national measure and does not account for region-specific price changes.
Pay by region
The change in median nominal salary on the year varies between the regions and countries of the UK.
From November 2024 to November 2025:
Scotland was the region/country with the lowest growth in median monthly salary at 1.1%.
The region/country with the highest growth in median monthly salary was Northern Ireland at 4.7%.
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
Annual real pay growth
Growth in real wages can be estimated by adjusting nominal pay for the rate of inflation, here CPIH, giving a better idea of how much wages progress in relation to the cost of living.
In October 2025, the latest month for which CPIH inflation data is available:
The year-on-year CPIH rate in the UK was 3.8%.
Nominal employee pay was up by 3.2% on the year in London, resulting in a decrease of approximately 0.6% in real pay on the year.
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information,
ONS.
Note: March 2020 indicated by dotted line. Inflation measure
does not account for region-specific price changes. Sign of inflation
rates has been reversed (higher inflation rates are associated with
lower real pay growth). Inflation data is released after pay data and is
not available for the most recent month.
Annualised growth rates
Annual growth rates are a backward-looking measure that indicate the cumulative impact of changes over the previous year. This is an important measure that shows how much wages, or prices have changed in total over the last year.
However, it is also important to understand how fast things are changing at the present time. To do this we show annualised growth rates that measure how fast prices and pay have changed over the last three months.
- Using the three-month period August 2025 to October 2025, we estimate the annualised growth rate of real pay in London to be -1.1%.
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information,
ONS.
Note: March 2020 indicated by dotted line. Inflation measure
does not account for region-specific price changes.
Additional payrolled employee statistics
The tabs below are each updated once per quarter on a rolling basis, as new data is released by the ONS/HMRC. Previous releases are included for reference.
Change by industry
Comparing October 2025 to the same time last year:
Public admin & defence saw the highest percentage growth in payrolled employees at 1.6%, followed by Arts & recreation (1.2%) and Finance & insurance (1.2%).
Information & communication saw its number of payrolled employees fall, with a decrease of 3.1%, followed by Hospitality (down by 2.8%) and Construction (down by 2.7%).
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
Excludes sectors with fewer than 25,000 payrolled employees in London.
Change by age group
Recent changes in the number of payrolled employees vary by age group. Comparing September 2025 to levels the previous year:
The number of employees Aged: 18-24 was down by 1.8%. This is a much larger fall than the UK’s (0.1%).
The number of employees aged 25-34, 35-49 and 50-64 changed only slightly over the year in London.
In London and the UK, we see a rise in the number of payrolled employee jobs held by people aged 65+, though they represent only a small share of the total.
Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time
Information.
Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.
Employment rate
Employment measures the number of people aged 16 and over in paid work and those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment.
For August to October 2025:
The 16-64 employment rate in London was estimated at 74.0%; this represents a decrease of about 1.8pp from a year earlier, and a decrease on the quarter.
The margin of error for the London employment rate is ±1.5%, which suggests that the oscillations over the last two years between around 74% to around 76% do not reflect a significant change in the underlying trend.
The overall UK employment rate was estimated at 74.9%, an increase of 0.0pp on the year, and a decrease on the quarter.
London and UK rates
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error is
±1.5% for London and ±0.5% for the UK. The LFS has been reweighted from
July to September 2022 onwards. September 2022 indicated by dotted line.
Regional comparison
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error ranges
from ±1.2% to ± 2.5% across regions.
Unemployment rate
Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is the proportion of the economically active population who are unemployed.
For August to October 2025:
The unemployment rate for London was estimated at 6.8%. This represents an increase of 0.8pp from a year earlier, and an increase on the quarter.
The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 5.1%, an increase of 0.8pp on the year, and an increase on the quarter.
The unemployment rate rose in almost regions and countries of the UK, with the national rate also reaching its highest in almost a decade, outside the pandemic.
London and UK rates
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error is
±1.1% for London and ±0.3% for the UK. The LFS has been reweighted from
July to September 2022 onwards. September 2022 indicated by dotted line.
Regional comparison
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error ranges
from ±0.6% to ±1.6% across regions.
Economic inactivity rate
The economic inactivity rate is the proportion of 16 to 64 year olds not in work and either not looking for or unable to work. The main categories in this group are students, people who are looking after family/home full-time, and people who cannot work for health reasons (most of whom are long-term sick).
For August to October 2025:
The rate of economic inactivity in London was estimated at 20.7%. This represents an increase of 1.3pp from a year earlier, and an increase compared to the previous quarter.
The UK rate of economic inactivity was 21.0%. This represents a decrease of 0.7pp on the year, and a decrease on the quarter.
London and UK rates
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error is not
published for London, the UK margin is ±0.3%. The LFS has been
reweighted from July to September 2022 onwards. September 2022 indicated
by dotted line.
Regional comparison
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey.
Note: The margin of error is not
published for regions.
Online job postings
The number of online job postings is an indicator of the demand for labour in London. It is very timely and complements more traditional employment indicators.
We use online job postings data provided by Lightcast. Given the volatility associated with single-month estimates, the three-month average estimates provide a more reliable indication of short-term changes in the demand for labour.
Latest job posting estimates suggest there were about 99,500 unique online postings for jobs in November 2025 (single-month estimate). This was a rise of around 0 compared to November 2024 and a rise of compared to October 2025.
The three-month average for November 2025 was about 110,000 postings. That is a fall of around from October but a rise of 10,900 on November 2024.
Postings for jobs in London
Source: Lightcast.
Note: Data not seasonally adjusted. March 2020
indicated by dotted line.
Claimant count
The Claimant Count is a measure of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed. It includes people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance and those claiming Universal Credit who are required to seek work.
For November 2025:
There were 352,000 people claiming unemployment-related benefits in London, equal to a seasonally adjusted claimant rate (as a proportion of residents aged 16-64) of 5.7%. The number of claimants in London was a decrease of -650 on the year.
The age group with the biggest percentage rise in the number of claimants over the last year in London was those aged 16-24.
The UK’s claimant rate was 3.9%. Up until the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, London’s claimant rate was in line with the UK’s. A gap opened then, and has not closed since.
Rate of residents aged 16-64
Source: ONS Claimant Count by sex and age (seasonally
adjusted).
Note: may include some employed claimants on low hours
or earnings. September 2022 indicated by dotted line. Claimant Count
numbers for the period May 2024 to November 2024 were affected by the
rollout of a higher administrative earnings threshold for full
work-search conditionality. This change would have raised the number of
claimants and raised year-on-year increases in the claimant rate in some
periods.
Year-on-year percentage change
Source: ONS Claimant Count by sex and age (not seasonally
adjusted).
Note: may include some employed claimants on low hours
or earnings. Note that Claimant Count numbers for the period May 2024 to
November 2024 were affected by the rollout of a higher administrative
earnings threshold for full work-search conditionality. This change
would have raised the number of claimants and raised year-on-year
increases in the claimant rate in some periods.
Summary of headline indicators
Headline estimates for Aug 2025-Oct 2025 | Number* (thousands) | Rate** (%) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Latest Estimate | Change on Quarter | Change on Year | Latest Estimate | Change on Quarter | Change on Year | |||||
Employment | ||||||||||
London | 4,872 | -92 | u | -54 | u | 74.0 | -1.4 | u | -1.8 | u |
England | 29,198 | -30 | u | 360 | t | 75.3 | -0.3 | u | -0.1 | u |
UK | 34,226 | -16 | u | 448 | t | 74.9 | -0.3 | u | 0.0 | v |
Unemployment | ||||||||||
London | 354 | 43 | t | 40 | t | 6.8 | 0.9 | t | 0.8 | t |
England | 1,609 | 123 | t | 299 | t | 5.2 | 0.4 | t | 0.9 | t |
UK | 1,832 | 158 | t | 327 | t | 5.1 | 0.4 | t | 0.8 | t |
Economic Inactivity | ||||||||||
London | 1,300 | 67 | t | 91 | t | 20.7 | 1.0 | t | 1.3 | t |
England | 7,543 | 8 | t | -172 | u | 20.5 | 0.0 | v | -0.7 | u |
UK | 9,099 | -26 | u | -234 | u | 21.0 | -0.1 | u | -0.7 | u |
Source: ONS Labour Force Survey. Quarter on quarter changes must be interpreted very cautiously, especially for London, given the recent volatility of estimates. | ||||||||||
Measuring the labour market
The ONS has published its latest labour market update covering Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for the three months ending October 2025 and real-time information (RTI) data up to November 2025. This bulletin presents the latest headline labour market estimates for London.
Please note:
Many of the statistics presented here are estimates based on surveys, and as such have a margin of error – known as sampling variability.
They also cover different reference periods or count dates.
More information and previous GLA Economics analyses can be found on our labour market analysis page.
More information on the data used and a glossary of terms can be found on the ONS website.