The number of people out of work in London has risen to its highest level in almost three years, new official data shows today.
The unemployment rate stood at 5.5% in the June to August quarter, up from 5.3% in the previous quarter, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
That means 280,000 people in the capital were out of work and looking for jobs, the most since the July to September quarter of 2021.
The spike in unemployment in the capital is in contrast to a fall in the jobless tally across the country as a whole. Across the UK the unemployment rate fell slightly from 4.1% to 4.0% in the three month period.
London now has the second highest unemployment rate of any region in the UK with only the north east ahead on 5.6%.
However, analysis of the data shows that the rise in unemployment may have more to do with people returning to the workforce than any slowdown in the number of jobs.
The ONS figures show that there were 4.82 million people in employment in the June to August quarter, a rise of 240,000, or 5.2%, over the previous year. That was made up of 4.1 million employees, and 797,000 self employed as well as smaller numbers of “unpaid family workers.”
However, the total number of people in the capital classified as “economically inactive” a category that includes the retired, carers, and people suffering long term sickness, fell by 227,000, or almost 10%, to 2.095 million, the lowest level since autumn 2020.
That suggest large numbers of people are deciding to go back to work, possibly because more jobs are available.
