MNI BRIEF: UK Unemployment Rate Hits Near-5-Year High

 The UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in the three months to October underlining the continued softening across the labour market, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday, the highest level in almost 5 years.

The early estimate of payrolled employees for November 2025 decreased by 171,000 on the year, and by 38,000 on the month, to 30.3 million. Vacancies in the UK are broadly unchanged; early estimates suggest a small decrease of just 2,000 q/q to 729,000 in the period to Nov.

Annual growth in regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 4.6%, and for total earnings (including bonuses) was 4.7%. Regular earnings growth was 3.9% y/y for the private sector and 7.6% for the public sector -- although the ONS warned the public sector annual growth rate is affected by some public sector pay rises being paid earlier in 2025 than in 2024.

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said "the overall picture continues to be of a weakening labour market. The number of employees on payroll has fallen again, reflecting subdued hiring activity, while firms told us there were fewer jobs in the latest period.