Official sources · Questions

Labour market statistics: jobs, pay and work data from the ONS

UK labour market statistics are the official figures on employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, vacancies, earnings and working conditions, published mainly by the Office for National Statistics each month. They draw on the Labour Force Survey, business surveys, HMRC payroll data and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and are available for local areas through Nomis. Fact-checkers use them for claims about jobs, zero-hours contracts, strikes, sickness, public sector staffing and the gender pay gap.

Covers: UK · Release calendar

What it publishes

• A monthly labour market release with employment, unemployment and inactivity rates, payrolled employees from HMRC, vacancies, earnings growth and the claimant count.
• Quarterly estimates of people on zero-hours contracts in their main job, by age, sex, region and industry (dataset EMP17).
• Monthly data on working days lost to strikes, stoppages and workers involved back to 1931 (dataset LABD).
• Quarterly public sector employment, split into central government, local government, the NHS, the Civil Service and public corporations.
• Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings results on pay, the gender pay gap and jobs paid below the minimum wage.
• Economic inactivity by reason, including long-term sickness, studying and caring, and quarterly figures on young people not in education, employment or training.
• Annual estimates of sickness absence and the number of working days lost to illness.
• Redundancy levels and rates from the Labour Force Survey, and HR1 notifications of proposed redundancies.

Key datasets

• Labour market overview, UK
  Headline monthly bulletin linking employment, unemployment, inactivity, vacancies, earnings and payroll data for the UK.
  Updated: Monthly
• A01: Summary of labour market statistics
  Spreadsheet of headline Labour Force Survey and related series, seasonally adjusted, from 1971.
  Updated: Monthly
• EMP17: people on zero-hours contracts
  Number and share of people on zero-hours contracts in their main job, with breakdowns; series break in 2020.
  Updated: Quarterly
• Vacancies and jobs in the UK
  Vacancy Survey estimates by industry and business size, and workforce jobs.
  Updated: Monthly
• LABD: Labour disputes in the UK
  Working days lost, stoppages and workers involved, by region, sector and industry, monthly from 1931 (gap for 2020 and 2021).
  Updated: Monthly
• Public sector employment, UK
  Headcount and full-time equivalent employment in the public sector by sector, industry and region.
  Updated: Quarterly
• Gender pay gap in the UK (ASHE)
  Median hourly pay gap for full-time, part-time and all employees, by age, occupation and region, from 1997.
  Updated: Annual (October)
• Low and high pay in the UK (ASHE)
  Share of low-paid and high-paid jobs and jobs paid below the minimum wage rates.
  Updated: Annual (October)
• INAC01: economic inactivity by reason
  People aged 16 to 64 inactive because of long-term sickness, study, caring, retirement and other reasons, seasonally adjusted.
  Updated: Monthly
• Sickness absence in the UK labour market
  Sickness absence rate, days lost and reasons, by worker group; official statistics in development.
  Updated: Annual
• Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)
  Number and share of 16 to 24-year-olds who are NEET in the UK, by age and sex.
  Updated: Quarterly
• Gender pay gap reporting service
  Gender pay gap figures reported each year by employers with 250 or more staff, searchable and downloadable.
  Updated: Annual returns

APIs and downloads

• Nomis
  ONS service for labour market and census data down to local authority and smaller areas; free downloads, and the Nomis API returns CSV or JSON with no key for most queries.
• Nomis API help
  Documentation for building API queries by dataset, geography and date.
• ONS API and time series
  ONS developer hub; each time series page, such as MGRQ for self-employment, also offers CSV, XLSX and JSON data.

When it publishes

The main labour market release is published at 7am, usually on a Tuesday in the middle of the month, with zero-hours, NEET and public sector employment figures on set quarterly dates. Earnings data from ASHE come out each autumn. Exact dates are on the ONS release calendar.

How to use it to check a claim

1. Check the period: Labour Force Survey figures cover rolling three-month periods, not single months.
2. Compare like with like: payrolled employees from HMRC, workforce jobs and Labour Force Survey employment measure different things.
3. Look at the sampling variability given in the Employment in the UK summary table before treating a small change as real.
4. For inactivity claims, separate the reasons in INAC01 rather than treating all inactive people as unable to work.
5. For the gender pay gap, state whether the figure is for full-time or all employees and whether it is the median.
6. For strikes, use working days lost rather than the number of stoppages, as the ONS recommends.
7. For public sector jobs, check headcount against full-time equivalent and watch for reclassifications such as academy conversions.

Common mistakes

• Reading the unemployment rate as a share of the whole population, when it is a share of people working or looking for work.
• Comparing Labour Force Survey estimates from mid-2023 and 2024 without noting the volatility the ONS warns about.
• Treating jobs paid below the minimum wage in survey data as proof of employers breaking the law.
• Presenting an employer's gender pay gap as evidence of unequal pay for equal work.
• Treating HR1 proposed redundancies as confirmed job losses.

How do I find labour market data for my local area?

Use Nomis, run by the ONS, which publishes employment, unemployment, claimant count and earnings figures for local authorities and smaller areas. Its local authority profiles bring the main measures together, and every table can be downloaded or queried through the free Nomis API.

Is the Labour Force Survey reliable?

The ONS rebuilt the Labour Force Survey after response rates fell in 2023. Its estimates were labelled official statistics in development for a period and are now official statistics again. The ONS still advises focusing on longer-term trends and using payroll data alongside the survey.

When are the next UK jobs figures published?

The ONS publishes the labour market overview once a month at 7am, usually on a Tuesday. Each bulletin gives the next release date at the top, and the full schedule is on the ONS release calendar.

Questions answered using this source

• How big is the UK economy (GDP)?
• Where can I find UK census data?
• What is the population of the UK?
• What is UK GDP per capita?
• Is the UK in recession?
• How is UK productivity measured?
• What is the UK unemployment rate?
• What is the average salary in the UK?
• Is the ONS a government department?
• Where can I download UK government data?
• Are wages rising faster than inflation in the UK?
• Is the Office for National Statistics reliable?

Links checked 2026-10-13. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.