North East regional labour market statistics

Introduction

On Thursday 20th March, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released the latest regional labour market data, much of which covered the three-month period of November 2024 to January 2025. 

The release is the headline summary of the most up to date statistics about the labour market in the 12 UK ITL1 areas (the nine broad English regions, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). It accompanies a more detailed UK labour market summary. The North East ITL1 region includes the North East and Tees Valley combined authority areas.

Headline regional labour market rates in the release are based on responses to the ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS). However, falling response rates mean that statistics from this source have become more volatile and are currently described as “official statistics in development” rather than National Statistics. Because of this, the regional labour market release includes additional information from other sources, including administrative data.

Where possible, the North East Evidence Hub focuses on statistics at combined authority or local authority area level to monitor trends in the area's economy. Local labour market statistics are usually released every three months, with most of the related surveys covering a 12-month period. The monthly regional labour market release provides a timelier snapshot of headline trends for the broader North East ITL1 region, although the detail is more limited.

Headline rates

In the Nov 2024-Jan 2025 three-month period, the North East ITL1 region was estimated to have had:

• The lowest working age employment rate among the nine English regions (70.5%, England 75.5%)
• the second highest unemployment rate (4.7% of economically active adults, England 4.4%) 
• the highest working age economic inactivity rate (26.1%, England 21.0%).

Compared to a year earlier (Nov 2023-Jan 2024):

• Employment in the North East ITL1 region was estimated to have increased by almost 15,400
• the working age (16 to 64) employment rate was estimated to have fallen by 0.1 percentage points (pp)
• the different directions of travel of the total and rate were due to much of employment growth being among those aged 65 plus and, among people aged 16-64, the rate of population growth being faster than the rate of employment growth
• the rate change was one of only three pp decreases among the nine English ITL1 regions. England’s rate increased by 0.4 pp
• North East regional unemployment was estimated to have increased by 9,600, with the rate increasing by 0.7 pp
• this was the second largest pp increase among the English regions. England rate's increased by 0.3 pp over the year
• there was an estimated decrease of 2,300 in working age economic inactivity in the region, with the rate decreasing by 0.4 pp
• the rate had fallen in seven of the nine English regions, with the North East having the second smallest decrease. England’s rate decreased by 0.6 pp.

Female and male employment

In the Nov 2024-Jan 2025 three-month period, in the North East ITL1 region:

• The male working age employment rate (70.8%) was the lowest among the nine English ITL1 regions, with the female rate (70.1%) being the third lowest 
• the 0.7 pp gap between the rates was, by far, the smallest in the English regions. The gap between the North East and England rates was much larger for males (8.0 pp) than for females (2.0 pp)
• the male working age economic inactivity rate (25.0%) was the highest among the regions, with the female rate (27.2%) being the second highest
• the male unemployment rate (5.8%) was the highest regional rate, while the female rate (3.6%) was the second lowest among the nine regions
• compared to a year earlier, female employment in the region was 14,100 higher, with male employment being only about 1,200 higher
• experimental estimates suggest that, in percentage terms, the largest decreases in North East employment over the year had been among males and females aged 16 to 24 and the largest increase had been among females aged 50 to 64.

PAYE employees

Early, seasonally adjusted, estimates for February 2025 indicate that: 

• The number of PAYE employees in the North East ITL1 region was about 670 higher than in February 2024, with the total in the North East combined authority area about 320 higher 
• compared to a month earlier, the number of such employees was 700 higher across the North East region, with the North East combined authority area total being 370 higher
• median monthly payroll pay in the North East region in February 2025 was about 5.5% higher than a year earlier, a slightly larger percentage increase than nationally (up 5.0%)
• both percentage pay increases were higher than the latest CPIH annual rate of inflation (3.9% in January 2025)
• North East regional median employee pay was about 94.5% of the UK equivalent.

This administrative dataset gives additional evidence about recent changes in the regional and local labour market, but the source does not provide information about self-employed workers or those outside of the PAYE system. It is subject to revisions.

Workforce jobs

According to the latest quarterly ONS estimate, in December 2024:

• The number of workforce jobs in the North East ITL1 region was about 31,000 higher than in December 2023
• this represented a 2.5% increase over the year, higher than England’s 1.4% increase
• the industries with the largest 12-month increases in the North East region were the accommodation and food sector and health and social work activities
• real estate activities and arts, entertainment and recreation had the largest 12-month decreases.

The workforce jobs measure is a sum of estimates of employee jobs, self-employment jobs, HM forces personnel and Government supported trainees. These estimates have a variety of sources but are a different measure to employment as one employed person may have more than one job. The data is not published for combined authority or local authority areas.

Jobseeker benefits

According to the ONS estimates of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of seeking employment, in February 2025:

• Almost 49,200 people in the North East combined authority area were receiving benefits for this purpose, about 2,400 more than in February 2024
• the latest total represented about 3.9% of the working age population, a lower rate than England’s (4.3%) 
• within the North East, the rate was highest in South Tyneside (5.3%) and lowest in Northumberland (3.2%)
• the male rate for the North East (4.7%) was higher than the female rate (3.2%).

Redundancies

According to responses to the Labour Force Survey in the three-month period of Nov 2024-Jan 2025:

• Almost 2,300 people in the North East ITL1 region stated that they had been made redundant in the three months prior to interview 
• this was equivalent to a rate of 2.1 per 1,000 employees, lower than the England equivalent (4.2)
• these statistics are based on a small sample size so they can be volatile.

The ONS also publishes data based on HR1 forms used by employers to notify the Insolvency Service of potential redundancies of 20 or more. According to this, in the Dec 2024-Feb 2025 three-month period:

• HR1 forms were received from 28 employers in the North East ITL1 region
• potential redundancies cited in these forms totalled about 2,000
• this was lower than in the equivalent period a year earlier (2,500)
• this dataset is an estimate of potential rather than actual redundancies and does not include information about smaller-scale redundancies.

Further analysis

Additional evidence about other aspects of the labour market is available across the Evidence Hub. The links below also include links to the ONS data sources.