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Welcome to Labour Flows: UK!

This website provides up to date analysis and data on labour flows and reallocation from the UK Labour Force Survey and Vacancy Survey. To jump straight to the data click here.

We also showcase research from a team of researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Essex on the state of the UK labour market following the Covid pandemic. This website subsumes our earlier site, “Covid Jobs Research: UK”.

Update: As of June 2024, this site is in the process of being updated! The Snapshot currently uses data up to 2022 Q4 with the latest data incoming soon.

Labour Market Snapshot

What is the current state of the UK labour market following the pandemic? Every quarter we go through the latest data to build a Labour Market Snapshot, which shows how employment and inactivity are evolving, along with labour market flows, measures of industry and occupational mobility, market tightness and the Beveridge Curve, and misallocation. Click here, or the link at the top of the page, to find out more.

What is this website about?

Labour shortages are one of the biggest problems facing the UK economy post-pandemic. Why are workers quitting their jobs? Why are older people leaving the labour force? Why are some industries like Manufacturing and Construction struggling so much to hire? Read on to find out more.

Our key finding is that workers have not only been leaving the labour force after the pandemic, but that they have changed where they want to look jobs, which is creating problems for the industries most affected by shortages.

The research here was conducted by a small team of researchers as part of an ESRC grant titled “The impact of COVID-19 on unemployment and earnings inequality”. In the spirit of making publicly-funded research as open as possible, we have built this website to showcase our research in an accessible and easy to understand way.

Along with our research, we have written non-technical articles about the “Great Resignation” of UK workers, and the “Silver Exodus” of older workers post-Covid. You can find non-technical write-ups, policy briefings, and our academic papers at the Our Findings page.

Our findings are aimed at policymakers, interested members of the public, and journalists. So please do take a look around!

Meet the team

The research on this website has been conducted in various parts by:

To get in touch for press inquiries or any other reasons, please visit our Contact page.