UK Labour Market Report: 2026 Schedule, Dates and What to Expect

The UK Labour Market Report is the monthly package of jobs, unemployment and pay statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is the closest thing Britain has to a single scorecard for work and wages, and it is the release the Bank of England watches most closely after inflation. The next report is due on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 am BST (7:00 am London, 2:00 am ET). Every date on this page comes from the ONS release calendar, and the schedule table below can be added to your own diary using the ICS and Google Calendar feed on this page. Full schedule and background: UK Labour Market Report dates.

The report is monthly, almost always on a Tuesday, and it lands at 7:00 am London time, before the London equity open and while Asian markets are still trading. That timing matters: sterling, UK government bonds (gilts) and interest rate expectations often move within seconds of the release.

2026 and 2027 schedule

The table lists every confirmed release date currently on the ONS calendar, with the local publication time. All releases are at 7:00 am London time, which is 2:00 am ET during British Summer Time and 2:00 am ET again in winter when both the UK and the US have shifted their clocks. Dates are set months in advance and are rarely changed.

Source: ONS release calendar. Dates beyond the current month are provisional in the sense that the ONS can move a release if it flags a change in advance, but in practice the monthly Tuesday pattern holds.

What is the UK Labour Market Report?

“UK Labour Market Report” is the market shorthand for the ONS statistical bulletin Labour market overview, UK, together with the companion bulletins published at the same moment: Employment in the UK, Average weekly earnings in Great Britain and the vacancies and claimant count data. Together they answer four questions: how many people are in work, how many are looking for work, how many jobs employers are advertising, and how fast pay is rising.

The headline numbers traders look for are the unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over, the employment rate for those aged 16 to 64, the economic inactivity rate (people who are neither working nor looking for work, for example because they are studying, caring or long-term sick), the change in payrolled employees from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) payroll records, job vacancies, and annual growth in average weekly earnings both including and excluding bonuses.

Pay is usually the single most market-sensitive line. Annual growth in regular pay, which excludes bonuses, is the measure the Bank of England treats as the cleanest read on domestic wage pressure. In the release of August 18, 2026, covering April to June 2026, regular pay grew 3.5% on the year and total pay including bonuses grew 4.1%, according to the ONS. Adjusted for inflation using CPIH, regular pay was up 0.5%.

The other reason the report matters is that it is the only monthly UK dataset that combines a survey of households with tax records covering the whole employed population. When the two disagree, as they have often done since the pandemic, the interpretation of the UK economy itself becomes contested, and that uncertainty feeds directly into interest rate expectations.

How is it calculated?

Three very different sources sit inside one release.

• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a household survey and the source of the unemployment, employment and inactivity rates. It reports rolling three-month averages, so a September release covers a quarter such as May to July. Response rates fell sharply after 2020 and the ONS has rebuilt the sample and collection methods since January 2024. The ONS itself warns that volatility remains in the estimates, particularly for detailed breakdowns, and advises using the LFS alongside other indicators rather than on its own.
• PAYE Real Time Information comes from HMRC payroll submissions and covers payrolled employees rather than the self-employed. It is close to a census, so it is far less noisy, but the most recent month is a provisional early estimate and is routinely revised when more returns arrive. The ONS explicitly tells users to treat the latest month as provisional.
• Average weekly earnings come from the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey of businesses, published as three-month average annual growth, in both cash and real (inflation-adjusted) terms.

Vacancies come from a separate employer survey, also reported as a three-month average, and the claimant count is an administrative total of people claiming unemployment-related benefits, including some people in work on low earnings, which is why it is not a measure of unemployment in the international sense.

Revisions are a permanent feature. Payroll figures for the latest month often move by tens of thousands, and the direction of revision has at times been consistently one way. Anyone reading the report for the first time should treat the newest single month as a signal, not a fact.

What time is it released and where?

Publication is at 7:00 am UK time on the scheduled Tuesday: 7:00 am BST in summer, 7:00 am GMT in winter. For the September 15, 2026 report that is 2:00 am ET in New York, 8:00 am CEST in Frankfurt and Paris, 2:00 pm in Singapore and Hong Kong, and 3:00 pm in Tokyo.

The bulletins appear free of charge on the ONS website, with the full data tables published simultaneously. The ONS operates a pre-release access regime under the Code of Practice for Statistics: a small number of named officials, including in the Treasury and at the Bank of England, may see the figures shortly before publication, and there is no market lock-up or press conference. There is no embargoed early distribution to the media beyond that framework, so 7:00 am is genuinely the first public moment.

The definitive calendar of forthcoming dates is the ONS release calendar. Datasets such as EARN01 (average weekly earnings) list their own next release date, and the EARN01 page confirms September 15, 2026 as the next update after August 18, 2026.

Recent readings

The table below shows headline figures as first published in recent ONS labour market releases. Because the LFS reports rolling quarters and payroll data is revised, later releases may show different numbers for the same period.

Source: ONS, Labour market overview, UK, Employment in the UK and Average weekly earnings in Great Britain bulletins.

The pattern across 2026 is a labour market that has cooled without collapsing: unemployment close to 5%, payrolled employment drifting lower, vacancies near multi-year lows, and pay growth slowing from the double-digit peaks of 2023 towards the mid-3s. Independent analysts have described the vacancy picture as the weakest in about five years, with real wage growth close to flat, according to Indeed Hiring Lab.

How do markets react?

The report moves three markets in the first minute: sterling, gilts and the interest rate futures that price future Bank Rate decisions.

The transmission runs through the Bank of England. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held Bank Rate at 3.75% at its meeting ending on July 29, 2026, by a majority of 6 to 3, with three members preferring an increase of 0.25 percentage points, or 25 basis points (a basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point). With the committee split, wage data carries extra weight: stronger-than-expected regular pay growth tends to push rate expectations up, lifting short-dated gilt yields and usually the pound, because higher expected returns on sterling deposits attract capital. Weaker pay growth or a jump in unemployment does the opposite, and typically supports gilt prices.

Equities react less predictably. UK domestic sectors such as housebuilders, retailers and banks are the most rate-sensitive, so they often move opposite to yields. The FTSE 100, where a large share of earnings is in dollars, can rise on a weaker pound even when the domestic news is poor, which is why the index sometimes appears to shrug off a bad jobs number.

Reaction sizes are usually modest compared with a US payrolls release, for two reasons: the survey noise means traders discount single readings, and the 7:00 am timing means the first move happens in thin pre-London liquidity. When the report lands two days before or after a Bank of England decision or a UK inflation print, the market response is generally larger because it changes the odds on an imminent vote.

For readers outside Britain, the report matters as a live experiment in how a services-heavy economy brings wage growth down after an inflation shock. Euro area and Asian investors watch it as a leading indicator for European wage dynamics, and gilt moves can spill into other government bond markets on quiet mornings.

What It Means for Your Money

Mortgages. UK fixed mortgage rates are priced off swap rates, which follow expectations for Bank Rate rather than the current level. Persistent pay growth above roughly 3% keeps those expectations higher and makes cheaper fixed deals less likely; clear evidence of a cooling jobs market tends to pull fixed rates down within weeks. Tracker and variable rates only change after an actual MPC decision.

Savings. The same logic works in reverse for savers. Signs that rate cuts are coming usually mean the best fixed-rate bonds are withdrawn quickly, so a run of weak labour market data is a signal to lock in if you were planning to.

Jobs and pay. Vacancies and the payrolled employee count are the most practical numbers for anyone job-hunting or asking for a rise. Falling vacancies alongside rising unemployment means less bargaining power. The real pay figure, wages adjusted for inflation, tells you whether the average pay packet is actually buying more than a year ago.

Pensions and investments. Gilt yields set the discount rate used by defined benefit pension schemes and drive the price of bond funds held in many workplace pensions and lifestyling strategies. Falling yields raise bond fund prices; rising yields lower them. Annuity rates for people about to retire move broadly with long gilt yields.

The pound, dollar and euro. A stronger pound makes imports, foreign holidays and dollar-priced goods cheaper for UK households, and trims the sterling value of overseas earnings for UK companies. If you hold international funds unhedged, sterling strength reduces your returns in pounds even when overseas markets rise.

Prices. Wage growth feeds into the cost of services, from restaurant meals to insurance and childcare. Slowing pay growth is one of the conditions the Bank of England has said it needs to see before it is comfortable that inflation will stay at target.

Related economic events

• US Jobs Report: the monthly non-farm payrolls release, the global benchmark for labour market data and the closest US equivalent to this report.
• US CPI Report: American consumer price inflation, the main driver of global bond yields, including gilts.
• US PCE Report: the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, watched for the direction of global interest rates.
• US GDP Report: quarterly growth data that shapes expectations for demand, and therefore for hiring, worldwide.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next UK Labour Market Report?

The next release is on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 7:00 am BST (2:00 am ET), followed by October 20, 2026 and November 17, 2026.

What time is the UK Labour Market Report released?

Always 7:00 am UK time, which is 2:00 am ET, 8:00 am in Frankfurt during British Summer Time and 3:00 pm in Tokyo. The data and the full tables go online at the same moment.

How often is it published?

Monthly, usually on a Tuesday, with unemployment and pay figures covering a rolling three-month period and payroll figures covering the latest single month.

Where can I find the official release?

On the ONS website, in the Labour market overview, UK bulletin and its companion releases, all listed on the ONS release calendar. Access is free and there is no paywall or registration.

How does the report affect interest rates?

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee uses wage growth and unemployment to judge whether inflation pressure is easing. Bank Rate has been 3.75% since December 2025, and the July 2026 vote was 6 to 3 in favour of holding, so the pay figures in each report can shift the balance of the next decision.

Is a consensus forecast available for the September 2026 report?

A consensus forecast for the September 15, 2026 release has not yet been published. Economists’ estimates from Reuters and Bloomberg polls usually appear in the week before publication, and this page is updated when they do.