'Strong bounce back' | ONS data shows record surge in payrolled workers

The volume of employees on British company payrolls increased drastically to a record amount in May, largely due to the ending of many coronavirus restrictions across the dining and pub industry, according to the latest data released today by the ONS, as reported by Yahoo Finance.

The surge, which was calculated using tax data, showed that British companies increased their number of employees by 197,000 in May, the biggest single month increase since records began in July 2014, taking the total to 28.5million.

This represents the fastest headline wage growth within Britain since 2007 in the year to April, as the headline unemployment rate fell for a fourth month in a row to 4.7%.

The data also suggested that the jobless rate has been kept down by the Government's continued commitment to the furlough programme throughout the spring. The scheme accounted for the wages of 8.9million jobs at its peak in May 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and supported 3.4 million jobs in April 2021.