Unemployment hits highest rate since Covid pandemic

The UK unemployment rate has risen by more than expected to reach the highest level in four years, fuelling expectations of a Bank of England interest rate cut after Rachel Reeves's budget.

- Richard Partington

With less than three weeks to go before the chancellor's tax and spending statement, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the headline unemployment rate rose to 5.0% in the three months to the end of September, up from 4.8% in the previous quarter.

City economists had forecast an increase to 4.9%. Representing an increase in unemployment to 1.8 million, the official jobless rate was last higher in January 2021, during the Covid pandemic.

Suren Thiru, the economics director at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said: "These figures suggest that the UK's labour market is suffering from pre-budget jitters, as businesses already weakened by April's rise in national insurance look to cut recruitment further in anticipation of another difficult budget."