{"id":14409,"date":"2026-10-21T19:57:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hiringlab.indeed.com\/uk\/?p=14409"},"modified":"2026-10-21T19:57:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:57:38","slug":"uk-employment-figures-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hiringlab.indeed.com\/uk\/blog\/2026\/10\/21\/uk-employment-figures-october\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Employment Figures, October 2026: Signs of Stabilisation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Growth in payrolled employment and a surprise fall in the unemployment rate point to labour market resilience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An uptick in wage growth is likely to add to expectations for a Bank of England rate hike.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vacancies continued to slide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/employmentandlabourmarket\/peopleinwork\/employmentandemployeetypes\/bulletins\/uklabourmarket\/october2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">figures<\/a> from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest the UK labour market is finding a floor, echoing the wider economy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2026\/oct\/15\/uk-economy-unexpectedly-grows-01-in-august-despite-fuel-hit-to-household-budgets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">better-than-expected<\/a> recent performance. Payrolled employment rose by a provisional 13,000 in September after a period of decline, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.7% in the three months to August (though with the usual caveat around data quality).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Bank of England policymakers, the figures are likely to play second fiddle to the inflation picture, with the groundwork for a November rate hike already laid. At the margin, the latest data\u00a0is likely to only add to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cm4gjrxez1q0o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expectations<\/a> for higher borrowing costs going forward, particularly given an uptick in annual regular wage growth (to 3.7%).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, the data also showed a continued slide in vacancies, down 21,000 in the third quarter, pointing to ongoing hiring caution. The ONS said this was centred on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c6eq327pzr53o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">smaller businesses<\/a> and was frequently linked to higher employment costs. Employers await next week\u2019s Budget for greater clarity about the government\u2019s tax plans and what it means for their cost base.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK labour market is levelling out despite ongoing hiring caution.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":14410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"recruiter-hub-blocks.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[252],"post_mwm_category":[349],"post_topic":[],"post_content_type":[],"post_duration":[],"post_actions":[],"post_franchise":[],"post_mwm_author":[305],"class_list":["post-14409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-featured","post_mwm_category-state-of-the-labour-market","post_mwm_author-jackkennedy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UK Employment Figures, October 2026: Signs of Stabilisation - 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