Number of people employed in the UK 2000-2024

There were just under 33.3 million people employed in the United Kingdom in the three months to September 2024. This represented a peak for the number of people employed in the country during this provided time period. In general, the number of people employed has consistently increased, with noticeable dips in employment occurring in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 

Labor market staying strong in 2024

Although there was a sharp increase in the UK's unemployment rate in the aftermath of COVID-19, the UK labor market bounced back forcefully after this sudden shock. By the middle of 2022, the UK's unemployment rate had recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while the number of job vacancies in the UK reached record highs. Wage growth was, by this point, growing at a much slower rate than inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. In the months since then, the UK labor market has cooled slightly; with unemployment bumping up to 4.2 percent and the number of job vacancies falling from their May 2022 peak. 

Characteristics of UK workers

As of the fourth quarter of 2023, the majority of UK workers were working in the private sector, at 27.2 million workers. In the same quarter the size of the UK's public sector workforce stood at approximately 5.93 million, with around 1.98 million of these people working for the UK's National Health Service (NHS), and a further 1.5 million in the public education sector. In the UK's private sector, the industry sector which employed the most people was wholesale and retail, which had a workforce of over 4.9 million people, followed by administrative and support service roles at around 3.08 million.