Unemployment has unexpectedly risen to its highest level for five years and wage growth has slowed again as the UK jobs market continues to come under pressure, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate of unemployment lifted to 5.2% in the three months to December, up from 5.1% in the three months to November.
This was the highest since the three months to January 2021 and the highest for over a decade outside of the pandemic era.
Most economists had expected unemployment to remain at 5.1% in the latest quarter.
The ONS added that regular wage growth fell back once again, to 4.2% in the three months to December, against a downwardly-revised 4.4% in the three months to November, and was 0.8% higher after taking Consumer Prices Index inflation into account.
But there was a welcome increase in vacancies, up by 2,000 quarter-on-quarter to 726,000 in the three months to January.
Liz McKeown, ONS director of economic statistics, said the data showed “more people who were out of work are now actively looking for a job”.
She added: “The number of vacancies has remained broadly stable since the middle of last year.
“Alongside rising unemployment this means that the number of unemployed people per vacancy has increased, reaching a new post-pandemic high.
“Meanwhile, redundancies are also showing an upward trend.”
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