UK redundancy rate

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), series BEIR. Monthly, usually a Tuesday in the middle of the month, 7am, in the ONS labour market release; next release 20 October 2026

UK redundancy rate: every value, by year, with a CSV download →

What it measures

The redundancy rate is the number of people who said in the Labour Force Survey that they had been made redundant, or had taken voluntary redundancy, in the three months before their interview, for every 1,000 employees. It covers the UK and is seasonally adjusted. Because it is based on what people report, it includes those who quickly found a new job as well as those still looking. It does not count notices of planned redundancies that employers give the Government. The ONS also publishes the level, the number of people made redundant, in the same release.

How to read it

The chart shows a rate, so it can be compared across years even as the workforce grows. Each value covers three months and is labelled by the middle month. The sample of recently redundant people is small, so the rate moves noticeably from one period to the next; compare it with the same period a year earlier and look at the run of several releases before reading a turn. The ONS has advised caution on short-term Labour Force Survey changes because of past falls in response. Plans announced by a single employer may not show up here until the jobs actually go, if they ever do.

Background

The ONS series starts in 1995, when the rate was 8.3 per 1,000 employees in March to May 1995. It reached 12.2 in February to April 2009, during the financial crisis, and its highest point, 14.3, in September to November 2020,. It then fell to 1.8 in March to May 2022, the lowest in the series. In August 2026 the ONS told the Office for Statistics Regulation that Labour Force Survey outputs, including this one, would move from official statistics in development to official statistics, while it works on the Transformed Labour Force Survey.

Other parts of the UK

ONS labour market in the regions of the UK (regional Labour Force Survey estimates)

Are redundancies rising in the UK?

Compare the latest rate with the same three months a year earlier in the chart above. When this page was checked on 13 October 2026, the rate was 3.9 per 1,000 employees in May to July 2026, published on 15 September 2026. Small samples make single-period moves unreliable, so the ONS advises focusing on longer-term movements.

How many people are made redundant in the UK each year?

The ONS publishes a three-month level alongside the rate, in the same labour market release (series BEAO). A rough annual total cannot be found by simply multiplying one quarter by four, because the three-month periods overlap and the measure is seasonally adjusted. Use the level for a given period and quote it with its months.

What does 'per 1,000 employees' mean?

It means that for every 1,000 people who were employees in the earlier period, this many reported being made redundant in the following three months. A rate of 4 per 1,000 is 0.4%. Using a rate stops the figure rising simply because the workforce is bigger.

Where can I check my own redundancy rights?

This page covers national statistics only. Rules on notice, consultation and statutory redundancy pay are on GOV.UK, which also has a calculator for statutory redundancy pay. Disputes go to an employment tribunal, whose decisions are published online.

Related questions

• How many redundancies are there in the UK?
• What is the UK unemployment rate?
• How is UK unemployment calculated?
• Are employment tribunal decisions published?

More on this source: UK labour market statistics (ONS, Nomis and the gender pay gap reporting service)