Jobs and pay in one image
Employment looks strong; pay and inactivity tell a more complicated story.
UK Facts · Jobs & pay
Fifteen years of work. £34 a week better off.
Real weekly pay — what a week of work actually buys after inflation — has barely moved since 2010, and only recently passed its pre-2008 level.
- £494real weekly pay, 2010In constant prices, so directly comparable
- £473the low point, 2014Real pay FELL for four consecutive years after 2010
- £528real weekly pay, 2025A gain of £34 a week across fifteen years — under 7%
Average real weekly pay, Great Britain, 2010 to 2025, in constant prices.
Employment held up; pay did not
Unemployment fell from 7.9% in 2010 to 3.8% by 2019 before rising again to 4.9% in 2025. Britain kept people in work through the period — the problem was what that work paid. Productivity growth, which is what funds pay rises, averaged close to zero and was negative in 2023 and 2024.
Read this carefully: Pay figures cover Great Britain, not the UK. Unemployment and inactivity come from the Labour Force Survey, which lost its accredited status in November 2023 and is published as official statistics in development — read the trend, not single-period movements.
Great Britain · 2025 · Released 21 July 2026
Source: ONS, Average Weekly Earnings real terms level (A3WX) · uk-statpack.co.uk
See pay, unemployment and inactivity in full →UK Facts · Jobs & pay
16.2%
Youth unemployment (16–24)
April–June 2026 · United Kingdom. People aged 16–24; includes full-time students. Labour Force Survey reliability caveat applies. Next edition (with the May–July 2026 period) is due 15 September 2026.
ONS, Educational status and labour market status for people aged 16 to 24 (A06 SA) · verified 2026-09-12
4.9%
Unemployment rate
United Kingdom, 2025
ONS, Labour market statistics (series MGSX) — official statistics in development
£528
Real weekly pay
Constant prices, Great Britain, 2025
ONS, Average Weekly Earnings real terms level (series A3WX, CPIH-deflated, constant 2015 prices)
21%
Economic inactivity
Working-age, 2025
ONS, Labour market statistics (series LF2S) — official statistics in development
Figures cover different geographies and reporting periods. Open the full analysis for definitions and caveats before quoting any of them.
Generated from the same verified stat registry and chart datasets as the rest of the site.