The number of UK workers on payrolls rose by 182,000 between June and July, says ONS

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the number of UK workers on payrolls rose by 182,000 between June and July, although at 28.9 million it is still 201,000 lower than before the pandemic struck.

The statistics body also confirmed that the rate of unemployment had dipped to 4.7% for the three-month period to the end of June.

Analysts had predicted that the unemployment rate would stay flat at 4.8% for the quarter.

The ONS also reported a further surge in job vacancies as firms seek to fill roles following the reopening of the economy, rising by more than 290,000 against the previous quarter.

Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The world of work continues to rebound robustly from the effects of the pandemic.

“The number of people on payroll was up again strongly and has now grown over half a million in the past three months, regaining about four-fifths of the fall seen at the start of the pandemic.

“Meanwhile, early survey figures show that the number of job vacancies passed one million for the first time ever in July.

“There was no sign of redundancies starting to pick up in our survey data ahead of the furlough scheme beginning to wind down, and Insolvency Service figures for July suggest the same.”