In the News Teaching Activity: Unemployment Has Risen Slightly to 4.3% (Sept 2023)

The Office of National Statistics latest labour market overview shows a small rise in unemployment in the UK. Have a go at this free teaching activity, which includes a downloadable worksheet and suggested answers.

The ONS publishes its Labour Market Overview each month with information about employment, unemployment and economic inactivity in the UK. This September overview tells us about what happened in May-July 2023. While the big news was that average earnings may now be rising faster than inflation, the data also showed a marginal decrease in employment and small rises in both unemployment and economic inactivity. Data from the labour market is somewhat mixed, but overall, it seems the labour market is cooling.

This Euronews article sums up this labour market news.

Unemployment is on the rise in the UK, but so are wages (Euronews)

Read the article and then answer the following questions.

1. Explain the terms employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.
2. According to the ONS, for May-July 2023 (all data in 1,000s), employment was 32,882, unemployment was 1,464 and economic inactivity was 8,780. Use this information to calculate the unemployment rate to one decimal place.
3. What factors does the Euronews article suggest contributed to the change in employment, unemployment and economic inactivity in the September data?
4. What does the phrase ‘the labour market is cooling’ mean?