LONDON, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Britain's unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over rose 0.5 percentage points year on year to 5 percent in the first quarter of 2026, estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday.
The figure was also up from the 4.9-percent unemployment rate recorded in the three months to February 2026, according to the ONS.
In the January-March period, the number of payrolled employees fell by 94,000 or 0.3 percent over the year and by 20,000 or 0.1 percent over the quarter.
From February to April, job vacancies decreased by 3.9 percent compared with the three months to January 2026 to 705,000, hitting the lowest level of vacancies since February to April 2021, the data also showed.
"Latest figures suggest the labor market remains soft, with vacancies at their lowest level in five years and unemployment higher than a year ago. The number of payroll employees continued to fall in the three months to March, while regular wage growth slowed further," ONS Director of Economic Statistics Liz McKeown commented.
Lower-paying sectors such as hospitality and retail have seen some of the largest falls in vacancies and payroll numbers, both in recent months and over last year, she said, noting that early estimates of the number of people on payroll in April point to further weakness.
Patrick Milnes, head of Policy for People and Work at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said the unemployment rate is expected to rise this year as business uncertainty grows amid UK's political unrest and the conflict in the Middle East. BCC's latest forecast expects it to increase to 5.5 percent, he said.
"A further drop in vacancies, now at their lowest outside the pandemic for more than a decade, suggests businesses are pausing recruitment," he added, arguing that the possibility of stagflation is very real with the conflict likely to drive higher inflation later in the year, while unemployment rising and growth remaining weak. ■
