Payrolled employment was down by 109,000 employees (0.4%) in May 2025 based on early estimates when compared with April 2025, with the overall unemployment rate rising to 4.6%. This is the highest figure since April 2021, just after the full impact of the pandemic.

Inevitably, the worst hit sector was hospitality with the job cuts of 5.6% across hotels, bars and restaurants, closely followed by IT and telecoms at -3.4%. Retail was down -2.4%. Overall employment was down 0.9%.