After so many months of difficult Brexit negotiations, it is understandable that it is starting to take its toll on British industries. However, while some businesses have had to reign in their progression plans and recruitment drives, the effect on the UK’s employment rate has been minimal.
In fact, according to the latest findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the employment rate has even managed to grow by 0.3 percentage points from 75.6 per cent for June to August 2018 to 75.9 per cent a year later.
In addition to this, average weekly earnings for employees were estimated to have increased by 3.8 per cent for both total pay (including bonuses) and regular pay (excluding bonuses) over the 12-month period.
While this is good news, the ONS figures showed the country’s employment rate has suffered slightly over the last quarter, dropping by 0.2 per cent between March to May and June to August 2019.
The employment rate has been declining since the previous quarter, when it fell by 0.1 percentage points between January to March and March to May this year. This represented the first quarterly decrease since June to August 2018.
This also coincided with former Prime Minister Theresa May trying to handle difficult Brexit negotiations with the European Union (EU) at the time.
While she attempted to secure a deal with the EU that both the British government and the European parliament could agree upon, she failed to find a successful exit strategy before the deadline of March 29th.
This left the country suffering from political uncertainty, Conservative MP Boris Johnson taking over as Prime Minister, and many employers holding back from recruiting new members of staff.
However, with Mr Johnson hoping to lead Britain out of the EU by the new deadline of October 31st, the employment rate could soon begin to grow again. This would result in more demand for Liverpool office space in the near future.