Labour Market Trends: November 2024

Claimant Count

This information is based on experimental monthly estimates of the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits.

The experimental Claimant Count includes Jobseeker’s Allowance Claimants and those claimants of Universal Credit who were claiming principally for the reason of being unemployed (those in the “searching for work” conditionality regime). Those claiming such benefits may be wholly unemployed and seeking work, or may be employed but with low income and/or low hours, that make them eligible for unemployment-related benefit support. As part of the response to the pandemic, the rules around who could claim Universal Credit had changed, meaning an increased proportion of those claiming may actually still be in some kind of work.

Commencing in May 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions are rolling out an increase in the administrative earnings threshold for full work search conditionality. This change is likely to affect around 180,000 claimants in the UK over a period of around 6 months, increasing the Claimant Count over that time.

In October 2024, the claimant count in Scotland was 114,800, an increase of 500 (0.5 per cent) over the month and an increase of 6,600 (6.1 per cent) over the year. The claimant count unemployment rate in October 2024 was 4.0 per cent, compared with 4.7 per cent for the UK as a whole.

Chart 5: Experimental claimant count rate for Scotland and the UK showed a large increase at the start of the pandemic, reaching a peak in August 2020 before starting to gradually decrease. The claimant count rates for Scotland and the UK have been fairly constant between mid-2022 and early 2024 although they have increased in recent months.

Claimant Count rate, seasonally adjusted, Scotland and UK, October 2019 to October 2024

Source: Claimant count, ONS