Government must continue to support young people in finely balanced jobs market - TUC

• The jobs market remains finely balanced
• The employment rate (75.1%) and unemployment rate (4.9.%) remained unchanged

• Redundancies saw a small rise by 1,500 to 114,000 in the latest three-month period

• Payrolls fell by 101,000 on the year to July 2026

• Vacancies fell by 8,000 over the quarter to 702,000

• Youth unemployment remains high at 14.4%. This is down slightly on the quarter but is higher than 11.9% a year ago. 

• Real pay growth was 0.8% against CPI inflation, down from 1.2% in the same period last year. Private sector real pay increased by just 0.1%.

Responding to the latest labour market statistics, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: 

“The labour market picture remains finely balanced. Jobs and pay remain under pressure. 

“Supporting more young people into work must remain a key priority. The Government needs to expand the Jobs Guarantee to ensure more young people gain important experience of paid work. 

“Stronger growth is the key, and recent progress on GDP needs to be sustained. It is time to release the handbrake on public investment and continue breaking the UK’s cycle of economic stagnation.”