Unemployment

Data on the percentage of 25 to 29 year olds who were unemployed, by socio-economic background.

Summary main findings

In 2021, 5% of all 25 to 29 year olds in the UK were unemployed.

There were no significant differences in unemployment among 25 to 29 year olds from different socio-economic backgrounds.

There were no significant differences in unemployment rates between young men and women from the same socio-economic backgrounds.

Young people from the Pakistani and Black ethnic groups were significantly more likely to be unemployed than White British young people from the same socio-economic background.

Disabled young people were around 3 times more likely to be unemployed than those without a disability, across all socio-economic backgrounds.

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By socio-economic background

Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

Socio-economic background	Percentage (%)
Higher professional	3.4
Lower professional	4.7
Intermediate	4.0
Higher working	4.9
Lower working	6.4
All backgrounds	4.6

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By area

Likelihood of being unemployed at 25 to 29 years old, by region compared to the national average (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest likelihood of being unemployed compared to the UK average. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).

For example, the value for Eastern Scotland (1.89) means that 25 to 29 year olds in that area are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed compared with the UK average. The value for Devon (0.56) means they are just over half as likely to be unemployed.

The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions.

The lines either side of the dots represent confidence intervals – the range of values that the 'true' value for each region is highly likely to be within. In many cases the confidence intervals overlap. This suggests differences between specific regions may not be statistically significant.

See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.

Q1 - Lowest 20%

Q5 - Highest 20%

Likelihood of being unemployed at 25 to 29 years old, by region compared to the national average (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Region	Ratio
Inner London - West	1.8
Inner London - East	1.3
Outer London - South	2.3
Outer London - East and North East	1.3
Outer London - West and North West	2.4
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	0.8
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire	0.9
Cheshire	0.6
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	0.8
Cumbria	0.6
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire	0.6
Devon	0.6
Dorset and Somerset	0.7
East Anglia	0.7
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	0.6
Essex	0.6
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area	0.6
Greater Manchester	1.5
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	0.6
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire	1.3
Kent	0.7
Lancashire	2.6
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire	0.6
Lincolnshire	1.6
Merseyside	1.5
North Yorkshire	0.8
Northern Ireland	0.6
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear	3.6
Shropshire and Staffordshire	0.7
South Yorkshire	0.9
Surrey, East and West Sussex	0.5
Tees Valley and Durham	1.3
West Midlands	1.6
West Yorkshire	0.8
West Wales and The Valleys	0.7
East Wales	0.5
Highlands and Islands	0.6
Eastern Scotland	1.9
West Central Scotland	0.7
Southern Scotland	0.6
North Eastern Scotland	2.3

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By sex

Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Socio-economic background	Men (%)	Women (%)
Higher professional	4.0	3.6
Lower professional	3.8	3.9
Intermediate	4.5	5.6
Higher working	4.7	4.8
Lower working	7.8	7.8

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By ethnicity

Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and ethnicity (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and ethnicity (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Ethnicity	Lower working (%)	Higher professional (%)
Bangladeshi	7.0	3.5
Chinese	11.9	6.2
Indian	11.2	5.8
Pakistani	17.1	9.1
Black African	17.3	9.3
Black Caribbean	15.8	8.4
Mixed	11.9	6.2
White British	6.4	3.2
White other	6.6	3.3
Other	12.8	6.7

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By disability status

Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and disability status (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of people aged 25 to 29 years who were unemployed, by socio-economic background and disability status (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Socio-economic background	Disabled (%)	Not disabled (%)
Higher professional	7.8	3.3
Lower professional	8.9	3.3
Intermediate	10.8	4.3
Higher working	12.7	3.8
Lower working	17.7	6.2

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About the data

Data source

Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Time period

2014 to 2021 combined

Geographic area

UK

What the data measures

The data shows the percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in the UK who were unemployed, by socio-economic background.

Things you need to know

Unemployed people are defined as not in work but available for and looking for work. Economically inactive people (those not in work or looking for work) are excluded from the data.

The data used is weighted using LFS probability weights. The charts show 95% confidence intervals.

The estimated percentages and confidence intervals result from a logistic regression model on the likelihood of being unemployed by ethnic group and socio-economic background, controlling for sex. The model assumes that class effects are the same within each ethnic group. A formal test confirms this assumption.

For data by ethnicity, the estimated percentages are those for men. Percentages are shown only for those with lower working-class and higher professional-class backgrounds for illustrative purposes.

The LFS uses the occupation of the main earner in the household when the respondent was aged 14 years when reporting socio-economic background.

For data by disability status, respondents were asked if they had a health condition or illness lasting 12 months or more, and if that condition reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This is consistent with the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010.

The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. These intervals show where we expect the true value from a population to be 95% of the time. For example, a confidence interval with the range of values from 5 to 10 implies that there is a 95% chance that the true population value is between 5 and 10, and a 5% chance that it is outside of this range. The narrower the confidence interval or range, the more precise the estimate. Read more about confidence intervals

Type of data

Survey data

Full report

Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.

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Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 17KB)

This file contains the following variables:

• Indicator code
• Indicator name
• Area type
• Area code
• Area name
• Time period
• Socio-economic background
• Age
• Sex
• Category type
• Category
• Value
• Sample size
• Lower confidence interval
• Upper confidence interval
• Standard error
• Unit

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