Britain’s rate of unemployment edged higher in the three months to September as the country heads for what is feared will be the longest recession in a century, official figures have shown.
The rate of unemployment stood at 3.6 per cent in the three months to September, up from 3.5 per cent in the three months to August, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
It came as more people dropped out of the workforce, with a hike in the proportion of people neither looking for work nor working.
Over half a million working days were lost to strikes in August and September – the highest two-month total in more than a decade – the ONS also revealed.
Wage rises continued to be far outstripped by rocketing inflation, with average earnings with bonuses stripped out down 3.8 per cent when compared with Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the figures showed.
It follows official data last week revealing the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter, putting the UK on course for a prolonged recession amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Darren Morgan, director of labour and economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The proportion of people neither working nor looking for work has risen again.
“Since the onset of the pandemic, this shift has largely been caused by older workers leaving the labour market altogether, but in the most recent quarter the main contribution has actually come from younger groups.”
He added: “With real earnings continuing to fall, it’s not surprising that employers we survey are telling us most disputes are about pay.”
