ONS | Employment levels slump amid Brexit uncertainties

Brexit uncertainties are now heavily impacting the jobs market, the latest data from the ONS has found.

Professionals and businesses are feeling the pinch of the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) already, ahead of the official departure deadline of October 31st. The ONS figures stated that employment has fallen in the three months from June to August to 75.9% – this represents a 0.2% fall over the last quarter.

With this, the UK unemployment rate has also increased from 3.8% in the last quarter to 3.9% as the number of jobs vacancies continues to drop past 813,000; this is 11,000 fewer than in the previous quarter and 34,000 fewer than the previous year.

The ONS data is corroborated by a report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which found that employers are delaying or fully cancelling plans for recruitment drives amid the ongoing uncertainty of Brexit.