Hannah Mullane
Business reporter

Image source,Lucy Gabb

Lucy Gabb graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in French in July 2025. She works in a cafe in London but wants to get into publishing.

She says she has applied for more than 50 graduate and entry level roles, leading to only one face-to-face interview. In most cases, she says she gets no reply at all or a fairly quick rejection.

"The application process is so long for each job it can be really hard to fit it in while working full time and trying to get some relevant work experience," she says.

"All my friends are talking about is the job search," she says. "It can be really soul destroying when you study for so long and you don’t get anywhere."

Image source,PA Media

We're now hearing from Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper.

She says the unemployment figures show "it's workers who are paying the price for the government's failures".

"From the damaging jobs tax to the betrayal on business rates, small and high streets across the UK are fighting to stay afloat, let alone grow," Cooper says.

She adds that the Lib Dems are calling for an "emergency VAT cut for hospitality" until April 2027 to create more job opportunities.

Uncertainty can lead employers to sit on their handspublished at 09:05 GMT

09:05 GMT

Simon Jack
Business editor

Today's figures suggest the job market is still weak.

Employers are still reluctant to take people on for a number of reasons we saw last year: there was a big increase in employers' National Insurance contributions, increases in the National Living Wage, particularly for young people, and there’s uncertainty around the Employment Rights Act. We also had a late Budget.

All of that creates uncertainty, so employers kind of sit on their hands.

The good news is that the hiring freeze seems to be thawing just a little bit. The number of vacancies out there has kind of levelled off. But overall you could say that this is still a pretty weak employment market.

We’re seeing the biggest falls in employment in retail and hospitality. This sector employs quite a lot of young people, and people either at or close to the National Living Wage.

The broader picture is that a lot of these uncertainties came at precisely the moment in the wider economy when employers were thinking: 'how many people do I actually need? Can I get automation? Can I deploy AI?'

People are getting a bit more expensive and a bit riskier - so they’re thinking of other ways to invest in the business, in capital rather than labour.

It does not simply mean anyone without a job, at least not when it comes to the figures from the Office for National Statistics that we're talking about today.

For someone to meet the ONS definition, three things must apply: they must be without work, available for work and seeking work.

Getting more specific, to be "unemployed" you have to have actively sought work in the last four weeks, and be available to start in the next two.

Those who don't have a job, but do not meet this criteria, are considered "economically inactive" - this group can include students, retirees and those off work with long-term illnesses or disability.

We're continuing to look through the figures released by the Office for National Statistics earlier and bring you any key lines.

The unemployment rate of people aged 18-24 in the UK has hit 14%, the data shows.

This marks a 0.3 percentage point increase from the three months to November, which saw an 18-24 unemployment rate of 13.7%

Aside from one three-month period in 2020 during the pandemic, which also saw 14%, the last time the UK saw a higher unemployment rate for 18-24s was in 2015.

For those aged 16-17, the unemployment rate is 34.2%, falling from 34.7% reported in the three months to November.

The ONS are set to release the latest figures looking specifically at the level of young people (16-24) not in education, employment or training, later this month.

These figures could lead the Bank of England to decide it will cut interest ratespublished at 08:24 GMT

08:24 GMT

Theo Leggett
International business correspondent

Slow economic growth in the second half of last year, and a late November Budget, contributed to what the ONS describes as weak hiring activity.

The number of people on company payrolls fell by 130,000 across the year to December, while more people who were out of work were actively looking for a job, pushing the unemployment rate up to a near five-year high.

Average pay grew by 4.2%, down from a revised 4.4% in the previous survey - with public sector wages still growing much faster than those in the private sector.

Economists say the latest figures would reinforce expectations that inflation will fall back, making it likely the Bank of England would choose to cut interest rates soon, possibly at its next rates-setting meeting in March.

Some reaction now from Michael Stull, the managing director of recruitment firm ManpowerGroup UK.

The latest youth unemployment figures are "very high and concerning", he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

It was a tough end to the year with "a lot of uncertainty in the market", he says.

"Hiring managers... don't like that uncertainty. Neither do workers - they stay put. So we knew there was going to be a drop in hiring."

Employers want to take on more workers, he says, but they need more confidence in the market after what he calls a period of instability.

Are you looking for work? Has your company slowed down hiring activity? You can get in touch in the following ways:

Image source,PA Media

We're now hearing from Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, out for the government, who says:

"Today's figures show there are 381,000 more people in work since the start of 2025, but we know there is more to do to get people into jobs.

"Our £1.5 billion drive to tackle youth unemployment is a key priority and this month we announced that we'll make it easier for young people to find and secure an apprenticeship, which comes on top of our investment to create 50,000 new apprenticeships."

Image source,PA Media

Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride responds to the rising unemployment figures, saying "Labour is failing".

Stride says: "Higher taxes - including a tax on jobs, soaring business rates, and anti-business red tape that piles on risk is making it harder to employ people.

"Labour's front bench has no real-world business experience and it's showing."

The Office for National Statistics’s director of economic statistcs says the latest data reflects "weak hiring activity", but she also says more people out of work are now looking for jobs.

Liz McKeown says the number of unfilled jobs has remained largely stable since the middle of last year - meaning that, combined with rising unemployment, "the number of unemployed people per vacancy has increased, reaching a new post-pandemic high".

Redundancies are also trending upwards, she adds.

"Private sector wage growth continues to slow and is at its lowest rate in five years. Public sector pay growth also slowed in the latest period but remains elevated," she says.

The UK's unemployment rate hit a near five-year high in the last three months of 2025, climbing to 5.2%, according to official data.

That’s a 0.1 percentage point rise from the 5.1% recorded inthe three months to November.

Across the UK, average annual pay grew by 4.2% - with thepublic sector seeing 7.2% growth and the private sector seeing 3.4%.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says the figures reflect "weak hiring activity". Chancellor Rachel Reeves' 2024 Budget hiked employer National Insurance contributions and saw a rise in the minimum wage, leading some businesses to slow down hiring and replace outgoing workers.

We’re digging through the figures now and will bring you more on what they all mean in our next few posts.