UK unemployment rate rises to 4.9% annually

The UK unemployment rate reached 4.9% in the period of May to July 2026, marking an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the same period last year, official data shows Tuesday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the total number of unemployed individuals aged 16 and over reached 1.8 million, increasing by 83,000 year-on-year.

The estimated UK employment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage points over the year to 75.1% in the latest quarter.

Despite the rate decrease, the total number of employed people aged 16 and over rose by 243,000 compared to the previous year to reach 34.5 million.

The economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years fell by 0.1 percentage points both annually and quarterly to 20.9%.

The total number of economically inactive individuals stood at 9.1 million, going up by 12,000 on the year.

Data also showed redundancies hit 114,000, rising by 10,000 over the past year.