Indicator
Trends in length of unemployment
Published
3 July 2024
Last updated
11 November 2026
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- Long-term unemployment has remained fairly consistent over recent years at around 1%, having decreased from 2.8% in 2011.
Unemployment can affect people’s health in several ways: it can act as a source of stress, deprive people of income and social networks, and lead to unhealthy coping behaviours. A longer duration of unemployment can worsen the extent of these issues and, consequently, someone’s health.
This chart shows the percentage of UK adults aged 16 years or older who are unemployed (out of work and actively seeking work) and how long they have been unemployed for, between 1992 and 2026.
- In the early 1990s, the long-term unemployment rate was around 4%, before a decline to around 1% in the early 2000s. It increased again following the 2008 financial crash.
- By 2017, the long-term unemployment rate had returned to around 1%, where it has remained. In 2026 Q1 (January to March), the long-term unemployment rate was 1.3%.
- Since the late 1990s, most unemployed people have been unemployed for less than six months. Long-term unemployment is the next most common, while unemployment lasting 6 to 12 months is the least common.
A decrease in unemployment is not necessarily accompanied by a rise in employment as it is possible that fluctuations in the unemployment rate reflect flows of people in and out of economic inactivity.
- The data presented here are weighted estimates from the Labour Force survey, a quarterly survey of employment in the UK.
- Unemployed people are people who are not working, who have been actively seeking work in the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks, as specified by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
- The unemployment rate is the unemployed population as a share of the economically active population.
- Economically active people are people aged 16+ who are either in employment or unemployed (according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of unemployed). These people are active in the labour force.
- Long-term unemployed people are people who have been unemployed for 12 months or longer.
- People who are economically inactive are people who are not in employment and who have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or are unable to start work within the next two weeks.
- Survey data between 2020 and 2024 were impacted by COVID-19 disruption and experienced some quality issues, including lower response rates.
