LONDON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The labor market in the United Kingdom (UK) has seen continued weak performance, with companies refraining from hiring due to high labor costs, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Tuesday.
The country's unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over was estimated at 4.7 percent during the May-July period of 2025. This marked rises both from the previous quarter and from one year ago, according to the ONS.
From May to July, the number of payrolled employees fell by 0.4 percent year-on-year, and was 0.2 percent lower than the previous quarter.
In the June-August period, the number of job vacancies fell by 10,000 to 728,000, with vacancies decreasing in half of Britain's 18 industry sectors, the data showed.
This marked the 38th consecutive period when the number of vacancies dropped compared with the previous three months. Meanwhile, the number of vacancies also plummeted by 14 percent year-on-year, and dropped by 8.4 percent from pre-pandemic levels, in January to March 2020.
The data also shows that annual growth in employees' average earnings, including bonuses, came in at 4.7 percent in the May-July period, up from a 4.6-percent increase during the previous three-month period.
Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said that the British labor market continues to cool, with the number of people on payroll falling again, and firms saying that there were fewer jobs in the latest period. However, she noted that wage growth remained strong by historic standards.
"The ongoing impact of business cost pressures, most notably from the national insurance hike, continues to hit the labor market," said Jane Gratton, deputy director of public policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, adding that "unemployment remains high and vacancies continue to fall with firms having to make difficult decisions on recruitment." ■
