UK unemployment rate ticks higher

(Sharecast News) - The UK unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% in the three months to August from 4.0% in the three months to July, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics. This was the ONS' first month using new methodology to calculate the rate.

The ONS explained that due to increased uncertainty around the Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, it was publishing an alternative series of estimates of employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity as experimental statistics.

The experimental figures were derived using growth rates from pay as you earn real-time information and the claimant count for the periods from May to July 2023 onwards.

"This is to provide a more holistic view of the state of the labour market while the LFS estimates are uncertain," it said.

The data also showed that the employment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point to 75.7%, while employment fell by 82,000 following a 133,000 drop in the previous quarter (-207,000 on the old series).

ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: "Today we have produced a new metric, produced by adjusting our headline survey estimates using robust administrative data sources that we receive from other government departments. This maintains the accuracy of our key statistics.

"This new metric shows that in the latest period the employment rate was down a little, with small rises in the rates for both unemployment and those neither working nor looking for work."

Gabriella Dickens, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The ONS' experimental estimates of the labour market data continue to suggest that labour market slack is developing more quickly that the MPC expected in August's Monetary Policy Report, adding to the evidence the Committee will keep Bank Rate at 5.25% at next month's meeting."