The UK added 134k jobs in the three months to May, up from 89k jobs added in the three months to April and well ahead of expectations of a 46k increase.

• The unemployment rate increased another 0.1 ppts to 4.7% (vs 4.6% expected) and is up 0.2 ppts in the last three months.
• The total number of unemployed has increased 98k in the three months to May and is up 124k YoY.
• The economic inactivity rate is down -0.4 ppts to 21.0% in the three months to May and is down -1.1 ppts over the last year.
• While unemployment has increased, the redundancy rate is actually down -0.1 to 3.9 in the three months to May.

The total number of job openings fell again, dropping -56k or -7.2% MoM in the three months to June to 727k, the lowest since April 2021.

• The total number of vacancies has dropped by an estimated 573k since its peak in March to May 2022.
• The number of unemployed people per vacancy was 2.3 in March to May 2025; this is up from 2.0 in the previous quarter (December 2024 to February 2025).

Total pay growth in May was 5.0% YoY (vs 5.0% YoY expected), down significantly from 5.4% YoY in April and the lowest since September 2024.

• Regular pay growth also eased to 5.0% YoY (vs 4.9% YoY expected) in May, down from 5.3% YoY in April and the lowest since June 2022.
• Regular pay growth in the private sector eased to 4.9% YoY (from 5.2% YoY), the lowest since February 2022.
• Regular pay growth in the public sector saw a smaller deceleration to 5.5% YoY (from 5.6% YoY).

The early estimate of payroll employment in June indicates a decline of -41k in June, a larger drop than the -25k decline seen in May (revised up from -10.9k initial estimate).

• This would be a decline of -178k over the last year, or a -0.6% YoY drop.
• The flash estimate of median pay growth for June is 5.6% YoY, down from the estimate of 5.7% YoY in May.