Unemployment rate remains stagnant as employees on payroll hit new record
The UK’s unemployment rate has remained stagnant since February, according to official figures, after it dropped slightly to 3.8 per cent.
The country’s employment rate inched 0.2 per cent higher to a total of 75.6 per cent, as it continues to chase pre-pandemic levels, the Office for National Statistics has found today.
It comes amid sluggish wage growth and recession concerns, as inflation flirts with a 40-year high.
Though payrolled employees for May 2022 showed a monthly increase of 90,000 on the revised figures for April 2022 – to a record 29.6m.
Total weekly hours have also climbed closer to their pre-Covid-19 level, with working having put in around 12.2m hours more this quarter, than in comparison with the final few months of 2021.
However, part-time workers, who mostly work in retail or hospitality, are now working around 0.6 hours more than their pre-coronavirus levels.