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UK unemployment rate rises to 4.2%, according to new ‘experimental’ official data
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UK unemployment rate rises to 4.2%, according to new ‘experimental’ official data
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Bank aims to cut costs after slight fall in profits
Bank aims to cut costs after slight fall in profits
EV charging  
£1bn fund to expand network still not open after three years
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Sunak faces further pressure over net zero U-turn after IEA warning
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Can Martin Sorrell return S4 Capital to top table of ad world?
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Real living wage rises to £12 an hour
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Big UK funds pledge to invest in high growth companies
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Low-welfare eggs from caged hens imported to UK in ‘staggering’ numbers
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Firms must be held responsible for harm they cause, ‘godfathers’ of technology say
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TfL suspends tube driver who began ‘free Palestine’ chant
Transport  
Plans to close rail ticket offices in England go too far, too fast, say MPs
Chunk of change  
Four charged with stealing millions of US dimes from truck
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Michael Cohen to face former boss Trump in New York courtroom
Environment  
Lobby groups fought ‘hard and dirty’ against EU ban on caged farm animals
‘We’re in a housing desert’  
A month in, is New York’s Airbnb crackdown working?
Today's agenda
The rate of UK unemployment rose 0.2% to 4.2% in the three months to the end of August, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Over the same period, the number of people in work fell by 0.3 percentage points to 75.7%, the ONS said – the equivalent of 82,000 jobs. That follows a 113,000 drop in the previous quarter.

Vacancies fell below 1m to 988,000, a drop of 43,000 and the 15th consecutive quarterly fall, the ONS said.

The ONS delayed the reporting of the figures by a week because of low response rates to its survey and the implementation of the new methodology.

Marcus Brookes of Quilter Investors said that the use of new data had led to a “slightly clouded” picture of the state of the labour market.

"Looking at the ‘experimental’ data, we can see that unemployment in the UK is remaining stable, for now. However, the fast rise in interest rates is beginning to bite and we are seeing companies scale back hiring and in some cases shed jobs, with the employment rate falling and unemployment rising gradually in the last three months.

"We know that economic growth in the UK is slowing and could potentially turn negative for the fourth quarter, so today’s data provides further evidence that things may be beginning to roll over."

However, Brookes added that the figures might provide “just enough” evidence for the Bank of England to continue to hold the UK base interest rate at 5.25% when its monetary policy committee next meets.

Meanwhile, Google's parent, Alphabet, and Microsoft are set to report results in the US this evening.

The agenda
• 9.30am BST: manufacturing ‘flash’ PMI
• 11am BST: CBI industrial trends quarterly survey

We’ll be tracking all the main events throughout the day ...
Opinion
Analysis  
UK risks scandal over ‘bias’ in AI tools in use across public sector
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