{"id":296576,"date":"2026-02-18T01:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296576\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T01:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T01:40:15","slug":"uk-unemployment-rate-hits-near-five-year-high-as-wage-growth-slows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/296576\/","title":{"rendered":"UK unemployment rate hits near five-year high as wage growth slows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>It&#8217;s clear many young people want a job, but can&#8217;t find onepublished at 11:52 GMT 17 February<\/p>\n<p>11:52 GMT 17 February<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-3u1n9h-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2091d3c9-5f5f-46b1-8fad-7ab1a1b4ff9f.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Theo Leggett<br \/>Business correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The core rate of unemployment is 5.2%. But for 16-24 year<br \/>\nolds it\u2019s 16.1%. It\u2019s clear many young people want a job, but can\u2019t find one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While a lacklustre economy may well be deterring employers<br \/>\nfrom taking on new staff, the lack of entry-level jobs is likely to be causing<br \/>\nconcern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Businesses say the increases in the National Living Wage,<br \/>\nwhich came into effect in April, have made it more expensive to take on junior<br \/>\nemployees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The apprentice rate went up 6%, for example \u2013 to \u00a38 per<br \/>\nhour. The standard rate for 18-20 year olds went up to \u00a310.85, an 8.5%<br \/>\nincrease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The standard rate for people over 21 went up by just 4.1%,<br \/>\nto \u00a312.71 per hour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That situation has been exacerbated by the increase in<br \/>\nemployers\u2019s National Insurance contributions, which also came into force last<br \/>\nyear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Put simply, the costs of employing people have gone up \u2013 and<br \/>\nthis is particularly true of minimum wage jobs. Employing youngsters used to be<br \/>\nrelatively cheap. Now, not so much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The concern is that by boosting minimum wages for young<br \/>\npeople, the government may be inadvertently pricing them out of the jobs market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s clear many young people want a job, but can&#8217;t find onepublished at 11:52 GMT 17 February 11:52&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-296576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}