The unemployment rate in the UK was 4.2% in August, according to the ONS, which has started using a new method to count how many people are jobless.
The rate compares to 4.3% in July, though the different survey methods used means like-for-like comparisons may not be appropriate.
Either way, the UK jobs market has remained surprisingly resilient following a wave of 14 consecutive interest rate hikes from the Bank of England, which eventually paused its hikes for the first time in a year and a half last month.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride MP said: “There are more than one million more people on company payrolls compared to 2019, a near record high, and today’s statistics also show inactivity has fallen by over a quarter of a million since the pandemic peak.
“Growing the economy is our priority. That’s why we are bearing down on inflation and bringing in the next generation of welfare reforms to drive down inactivity and help more people into work.”
But Neil Birrell of the Premier Miton Diversified Growth Funds said: "Under the new methodology the September UK employment data came in much as expected. After slightly weaker retail sales numbers, the data on the economy is still ambiguous. It’s hard to believe that sticky inflation and higher interest rates won’t have more impact on the surprisingly robust economy. Focus is now all on the upcoming round of central bank policy decisions.”
ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “Today we have produced a new metric, produced by adjusting our headline survey estimates using robust administrative data sources that we receive from other government departments. This maintains the accuracy of our key statistics.
“This new metric shows that in the latest period the employment rate was down a little, with small rises in the rates for both unemployment and those neither working nor looking for work.
“This is part of our transformation of the way we measure the labour market where we are introducing an improved Labour Force Survey, asking more people in different ways about their employment status.”
The ONS said it changed the methodology because too few people were responding to its surveys.
“Falling survey response rates is a challenge facing statistics agencies worldwide, but here at the ONS we are working hard to ensure we can keep producing trusted labour market metrics,” it said.
There were 119,000 working days lost because of strikes in August.
