ONS · Labour market overview, UK (LMS time series)

People unemployed

2026 Q2 Final

1,772,000people

People unemployed was 1,772,000 people in 2026 Q2, up 5.2% (88,000) from 1,684,000 in 2025 Q2.

▲ 5.2% · +88,000 against 2025 Q2 (same quarter previous year)

ONS estimate
2026 Q2
published 17 August 2026
MGSC
row “LFS: Unemployed: UK: All: Aged 16+: 000s: SA: Annual = 4 quarter average”
column “2026 Q2”
cell value 1772

The series is rising. Rule: up 5.2% from 2025 Q2 to 2026 Q2.

1971 Q1 to 2026 Q2

Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The estimated number of people aged 16 and over in the UK who were unemployed on the International Labour Organization definition, seasonally adjusted.

People often confuse this with

Benefit recipient ≠ Unemployed personMost people on Universal Credit are in work, disabled, caring or not required to look for work. The unemployed are people without a job who are looking for one and available to start, measured by the Labour Force Survey whether or not they claim anything.

What this doesn’t measure

Claimants of any benefit: the count comes from a survey of households, not from benefit records.

Important caveat

Labour Force Survey estimates come from a sample of households, so every figure has a margin of error and small changes between quarters may not be real. Response rates fell sharply after 2020; ONS suspended the survey's accredited official statistics status in 2024 and reintroduced it with reweighted estimates, so figures across that period are not a clean series. Civometry stores the calendar-quarter estimates because the monthly figures ONS publishes for these series are three-month rolling averages named after their final month.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher: ONS
Publication: Labour market overview, UK (LMS time series)
Release: Labour market overview, UK: August 2026, published 17 August 2026
Source file: ons_labour_market.json
File SHA-256: 9995a0293e3629add1cf76516e37f3e60f0be365343415867ab5fa687950e0fc
Retrieved: 3 September 2026
Sheet: LMS
Table: MGSC
Row: LFS: Unemployed: UK: All: Aged 16+: 000s: SA: Annual = 4 quarter average
Column: 2026 Q2
Cell value: 1772 (× 1,000 = 1,772,000 people)
Geography: United Kingdom
Unit: people
API: /api/metrics/unemployment_level · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–	1,470,0002024 Q2	1,772,0002026 Q2	↑ 20.5%
Conservative 2019–2024	1,325,0002019 Q3	1,470,0002024 Q2	↑ 10.9%
Conservative 2017–2019	1,530,0002017 Q1	1,325,0002019 Q3	↓ 13.4%
Conservative 2015–2017	1,826,0002015 Q1	1,530,0002017 Q1	↓ 16.2%
Coalition 2010–2015	2,526,0002010 Q1	1,826,0002015 Q1	↓ 27.7%
Labour 2005–2010	1,416,0002005 Q1	2,526,0002010 Q1	↑ 78.4%
Labour 2001–2005	1,481,0002001 Q1	1,416,0002005 Q1	↓ 4.4%
Labour 1997–2001	2,085,0001997 Q1	1,481,0002001 Q1	↓ 29.0%
Conservative 1992–1997	2,762,0001992 Q1	2,085,0001997 Q1	↓ 24.5%
Conservative 1987–1992	3,113,0001987 Q1	2,762,0001992 Q1	↓ 11.3%
Conservative 1983–1987	2,998,0001983 Q1	3,113,0001987 Q1	↑ 3.8%
Conservative 1979–1983	1,420,0001979 Q1	2,998,0001983 Q1	↑ 111.1%

Full comparison with chart

Release: Labour market overview, UK: August 2026 · publication page
Last updated: 17 August 2026
Next release expected: Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)