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Regional Labour Market Status

Live ONS Claimant Count tracker detailing claimant numbers, claimant proportions and gender splits by region. The claimant count is not the unemployment rate.

Total GB Claimants1,709,200Total active claimants (May 2026)
Average Claimant Rate3.8%Proportion of active population
Highest Claimant Rate5.7%London region average
Report Data PeriodMay 2026Latest monthly ONS release

Regional Claimant Rate Index

Region Total Claimants Rate % Male Rate % Female Rate %
London355,0405.7%6.2%5.1%
West Midlands202,6255.3%6.1%4.5%
North West202,7404.2%5.0%3.4%
Yorkshire and The Humber145,9954.1%4.8%3.5%
North East64,1653.8%4.5%3.0%
East Midlands110,6303.5%4.0%3.0%
Wales65,3453.4%3.9%2.8%
East132,5803.3%3.6%2.9%
South East187,1303.1%3.6%2.8%
Scotland109,9753.1%3.8%2.5%
South West99,0452.8%3.1%2.4%
Northern Ireland33,9302.8%3.1%2.6%

Labour Market Analysis

The claimant count dataset provides a high-frequency monthly pulse of regional economic activity in Great Britain. Areas with heavy industrial restructuring or historical transition periods, such as the North East and the West Midlands, often record higher claimant count rates (exceeding 5.0% of the active working-age population).

Conversely, regions in the South of England, particularly the South East and the South West, currently register lower claimant proportions than several other regions. Gender splits show differences in claimant proportions between males and females. The claimant count should not be interpreted as the unemployment rate.

Claimant Rate Leaderboard

Regions ranked by their total claimant count proportion.

London5.7%
West Midlands5.3%
North West4.2%
Yorkshire and The Humber4.1%
North East3.8%
East Midlands3.5%
Wales3.4%