United Kingdom: Labor market remains solid at outset of Q4
According to the ONS, vacancy numbers declined in the three months to October for the 16th consecutive period, though employment increased by 33,000 in October according to experimental data, and wage growth in the three months to September outstripped inflation, supporting consumers’ purchasing power. Official unemployment figures were not published together with the aforementioned labor market data due to quality concerns, though experimental data released by the statistics office put the unemployment rate at 4.2% in Q3, in line with Q2 but up from the low-point of 3.5% reached in mid-2022.
Overall, these figures show that the labor market is still in solid shape, despite having lost dynamism over the last 12 months.