September Labour Market Statistics: Comment from the Institute for Employment Studies

IES News

14 Sep 2021

Commenting on today’s Labour Market Statistics, IES Director Tony Wilson said:

“Today’s figures confirm that the jobs recovery is continuing to gain speed. However they also show that we’ve seen the biggest fall in the size of the labour market since at least the early 1970s.  Officially, there are still more than half a million fewer people either in work or looking for work than before the pandemic began, although furlough will be pushing the actual figure closer to a million. With vacancies setting new records, the biggest risk that we’re now facing is not enough workers rather than not enough jobs.  At the same time, there are more than six million people outside the labour market because of ill health, caring or studies.  So we need to be doing far more – government and employers – to help more of these people to get into work.”

Read the detailed IES Labour Market Statistics briefing note here