Pat McFadden, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said the figures “show the resilience of our labour market” with the UK’s employment rate “now the third highest in the G7, despite a backdrop of global uncertainty”.
However, he said that “too many young people still find themselves locked out of employment”.
The government is working with industry “to bring young people back into the labour market and prevent them from drifting into the welfare system”, he added.
But Conservative shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said on X, external that “businesses can’t afford to hire”.
“This is what happens when you attack employers, tax jobs, and put up red tape,” he said.
The latest ONS figures showed the unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 was 15.6% in the June to August quarter. While that was down from 16.4% in the March to May period, it was still higher than the rate of 14.6% seen in the June-to-August period last year.
Separate ONS figures have indicated that nearly one million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training – or “Neet”
On Monday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned the UK faces an “economic catastrophe and moral failure” due to high levels of youth unemployment.
Ashley Webb, senior UK economist for Capital Economics, said the fall in the unemployment rate was “unexpected”, and that it suggests the labour market “continues to recover”.
But “with businesses’ energy costs likely to fall only slowly, we still think hiring will stay subdued,” he said.
Louise Murphy, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said the labour market “has performed poorly in recent years as the number of jobs has fallen and pay growth weakened”.
But she added that the UK’s “recent bout of economic resilience may finally be creating some green shoots”, pointing to “rising employment levels and private sector wage growth stabilising”.
The quality of ONS statistics has been criticised in recent years, with a review last year finding “deep seated” issues with the body.
The Labour Force Survey, which it uses to report payroll and employment figures, has suffered from low response rates.
In an update on Tuesday, the ONS said that response levels had improved, but that “some volatility” remained in the statistics.
