The unemployment rate in the UK has risen unexpectedly and reached a 5-year peak in the fourth quarter of 2025, amid slowing wage growth. This is according to official data from the British Office for National Statistics (ONS), quoted by DPA.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in the October-December period compared to 5.1 percent in the previous, third quarter of 2025.
This is the highest level since the beginning of 2021, but excluding the pandemic period, it is the highest in over a decade.
Most economists had expected unemployment to remain unchanged at 5.1 percent in the last quarter of 2025.
The Office for National Statistics also reported that average growth in regular wages slowed to 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a revised 4.4 percent in the previous three-month period, and after adjusting for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (PCI), the real increase was 0.8 per cent.
At the same time, job vacancies rose by 2,000 on a quarterly basis, reaching 726,000 in the three months to January.
The data shows that "more people who were unemployed are now actively looking for work," said Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, adding that "the number of job vacancies has remained broadly stable since the middle of last year. Combined with rising unemployment, this means that the number of unemployed people per vacancy has reached a new high since the pandemic," McKeown said.
The trend towards increasing layoffs also continues to strengthen, the UK statistics office also reports.