The UK labour market lost an estimated 26,000 payrolled employees in August, while vacancies remained close to their level at the start of the year. The September 15 release puts payroll employment at 30.2 million. Taken together, the figures describe a prolonged decline in employee numbers alongside relatively little recent change in employers' advertised demand for staff. Official labour-market overview.
For households, pay has continued rising faster than prices, although the real increase is small. For jobseekers, the vacancy figures offer little evidence of a broad hiring rebound. Those experiences can coexist: the report measures people already receiving wages as well as employers looking for recruits, over several different reporting periods.
UK labour market: payroll losses extend beyond one month
The August payroll estimate was 145,000 lower than a year earlier, a decline of 0.5%. Wholesale and retail recorded the largest annual employee fall, at 76,000, while administrative and support services added 72,000. These contrasting sector results show why the national decline cannot describe every workplace. ONS and HMRC payroll bulletin.
The newest UK labour market payroll reading is provisional. About 85% of the underlying information is normally available for an early estimate, increasing to between 98% and 99% by the following bulletin. As employers' submissions arrive, estimates replace missing information with recorded payments. July's monthly fall was revised from 13,000 to 19,000 in this release, illustrating the practical effect of that process. Payroll data and revisions.
Small employers account for much of the vacancy decline
Estimated vacancies totalled 702,000 in June to August, down 8,000 from March to May. Businesses with one to nine employees accounted for 7,000 of that quarterly decline. Across industries, education recorded the largest numerical reduction, at 5,000. The UK labour market therefore showed concentrated falls rather than an equal reduction across every type of employer. Vacancy survey results.
ONS nevertheless described vacancies as broadly flat since January. The quarterly movement falls within its uncertainty range of approximately 32,000 vacancies in either direction. A separate comparison showed 2.5 unemployed people for each vacancy in May to July, unchanged since July to September 2025. That ratio describes the national balance between available workers and openings; it is not a count of applicants for any particular job. Vacancy measures and uncertainty.
Pay rises leave a modest gain after inflation
Average regular earnings in Great Britain grew 3.5% in May to July compared with a year earlier. Including bonuses, growth was 3.9%. Adjusting for CPIH, the inflation index including owner-occupiers' housing costs, reduced those increases to 0.6% and 0.9%. The UK labour market pay figures thus show why a larger payslip can translate into a much smaller improvement in purchasing power. Average weekly earnings.
Regular earnings growth was 6.3% in the public sector and 2.9% in the private sector. ONS cautioned that the timing of public-sector awards affects that comparison. Earnings are also averages across employees: changes in the mix of higher- and lower-paid jobs can move the result. They do not establish what an individual employee received, and the earnings survey covers Great Britain rather than the entire United Kingdom. Earnings definitions and sector results.
What the next release can clarify
Unemployment stood at 4.9% in May to July, largely unchanged on the quarter. ONS says improved household-survey responses affect measured employment growth and currently regards tax records as its most reliable employee measure. Reading the UK labour market therefore requires matching periods and definitions before comparing changes. ONS comparison of indicators.
Company-level decisions provide another view of the UK labour market. The proposed Speciality Steel UK acquisition concerns more than 1,300 supported jobs, according to ministers, but the national statistics cannot determine those workers' futures. ONS schedules its next release for October 20, when fuller payroll returns should sharpen the August estimate and provide a newer reading on employment and pay.