Unemployment rate rises in Milton Keynes mirror trends across the UK

Nationally, the newest data, from the Office for National Statistics, covering September to November 2020 shows the unemployment rate has risen to 5%, up from 4.4% between June to August.

This figure represents more than 1.7 million people, unemployment was at 4% in February 2020 prior to the pandemic.

Milton keynes figures show the unemployment rate for the year between October 2019 and September 2020 is at 3.9% a rise of 0.2% from last year's findings. The quarterly findings showed a more significant leap in unemployment standings with a 0.5% rise in unemployment.

East of England boasts the third-highest employment rate in the UK, but has still been hit by the coronavirus which has restricted the way so many businesses operate. East of England's employment rate dropped by 0.5% from findings recorded in the last quarter. The region has an unemployment rate of 4.6%, which accounts for economically active adults who aren't working, discounting those not actively seeking work.

Other findings in the Office for National Statistics show in November, there were 28.1 million payrolled employees in the UK – 828,000 fewer than in February 2020. Compared to November 2019, the number of employees has fallen by 2.8%.

In September 2020, there were an estimated 34.69 million workforce jobs in the UK; this is 942,000 fewer than a year ago (September 2019) and 475,000 fewer than last quarter (June 2020).

There were 578,000 job vacancies between October and December. That was 81,000 more than during the previous quarter, however the recovery in numbers slowed compared to between July and September. The recovery follows a sharp drop in vacancies at the start of the pandemic. Vacancies are still below the pre-pandemic level – there are 224,000, or 27.9%, fewer vacancies now than a year ago.