UK unemployment rate remained unchanged, despite the expected increase

According to the report from Office for National Statistics, the UK employment rate in the three months to April 2020 was estimated at 76.4%, 0.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier but 0.1 percentage points down on the previous quarter.

The UK unemployment rate for the three months to April 2020 was estimated at 3.9%, 0.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier but largely unchanged on the previous quarter. Economists had expected an increase to 4.7%/

The total number of weekly hours worked in the three months to April 2020 was 959.9 million, down a record 94.2 million (8.9%) hours on the previous year.

Pay growth for employees in total pay (including bonuses) is estimated to be 1.0%; this translates to a fall of 0.4% in real terms

For the the three months to April 2020:

• total pay (nominal) annual growth rate was 1.0%

• regular pay (nominal) annual growth rate was 1.7%

• total pay (real) annual growth rate was negative 0.4%

• regular pay (real) annual growth rate was 0.4%

This is the first time since the three months to January 2018 that we have seen total pay fall in real terms. It is more impacted than that for regular pay because of subdued bonuses, which fell by an average negative 6.8% (in nominal terms) in the three months February to April 2020.

There were an estimated 476,000 vacancies in the UK in March to May 2020; this is 342,000 fewer than the previous quarter and 365,000 fewer than a year earlier; experimental single-month estimates indicate a decrease of approximately 60% of vacancies for May 2020 compared with March 2020.

The Claimant Count continued to rise during May 2020 reaching 2.8 million; this includes both those employed with low income or hours and those who are unemployed.