UK pay climbs 4.9% as 100,000 jobs vanish in April

UK payrolled employee numbers fell by 100,000 between March and April 2026, the second consecutive monthly drop and part of the largest annual decline since the pandemic.

Early Office for National Statistics estimates published on Tuesday (19 May 2026) show 30.2 million people were on UK payrolls in April, down 210,000 on the same month last year.

Median monthly pay rose 4.9% over the year to £2,627, but the rate of wage growth has cooled from levels seen through 2024 and 2025.

The ONS cautioned that April figures should be treated as provisional. Early months in the tax year typically carry greater uncertainty and have received upward revisions in recent years that are larger than average.

The March 2026 figure has already been revised down from an 11,000 monthly fall to a 28,000 fall as additional Real Time Information submissions were incorporated.

The wholesale and retail sector lost 76,000 employees over the year, the steepest fall of any industry. Accommodation and food services saw payrolls drop 3.4%, the worst annual contraction across the 14 largest sectors.

Health and social work was the only major sector to add jobs at scale, with 24,000 more employees on the books than a year earlier.

Northern Ireland was the only UK region to record annual employee growth, up 1.0% in April. London saw the sharpest fall at 1.3%, with Brent posting a 2.6% drop on the year. Mid Ulster recorded the strongest local growth at 1.7%.

Younger workers absorbed most of the damage. Payrolls for workers under 25 fell by 55,000 over the year, while those aged 25 to 34 recorded the largest absolute decline of any age group. Workers aged 65 and over were the only cohort to grow in size, up 59,000.

“The labour market had already had a disappointing start to the year, and ONS figures out this morning reveal the early impact of the Middle East war has continued that trend,” said Richard Carter, Head of Fixed Interest Research at Quilter Cheviot.

Carter noted the figures only capture the initial effects of the conflict and warned that higher costs and weaker consumer demand could feed through in the coming months.

Wage growth

Median pay growth was strongest in health and social work at 6.8% and weakest in finance and insurance at 3.1%. The finance sector continues to pay the highest median monthly wage at £4,240, almost three times the £1,435 median in accommodation and food services.

Annual wage growth remained above inflation in the latest quarterly reading at 3.4% for regular earnings excluding bonuses and 4.1% for total earnings including bonuses. Total earnings ticked up 0.3% on the previous reading, a movement that policymakers will be tracking ahead of the Bank of England’s next rate decision.

“Markets are grappling with an increasingly uncertain outlook, including the risk that persistent inflation pressures could force central banks to tighten policy once more,” said Carter.

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