We've taken a look at newly released employment statistics from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) and combined them with statistics from other sources to highlight some interesting insights.
The current UK population stands at around 68 million people and there are around 30 million people employed and paid via a regular payslip on the PAYE standard.
In addition to the above statistics, 4.5 million people in the UK are registered as self employed - this could be in addition to a form of employment. Most self employed are middle-aged, so ages between 45 and 54 with the majority living in the London area. The average self employed person earns around £42,500 per year.
In contrast, the average employee on PAYE is earning around £27,700 per year. This is the 50th percentile figure and shows a rise of 9.7 percent year-on-year (2022 vs 2023). You can check your position within the income percentiles using our calculator. Over 94 percent of PAYE employees are aged between 18 and 64.
Median pay is strongest in the Finance/Insurance, IT and Comms, and Science/Tech sectors. The weakest pay categories are the service, arts and accommodation/food services sectors. The range here goes from around £3,800 a month to as low as £1,200 a month - gross pay.
In terms of sector employment growth, there has been a large increase in the number of employees within the health and social work sector. The smallest growth is seen in the wholesale and retail sector. Pay increases are also seen as strongest in the Health and Social Work areas - weakest growth is in Transportation and Storage.
Employee pay spread in terms of age ranges from £411 a month for under 18s, through to £2,715 for those aged 35 to 49.
In the last twelve months there have been an additional 439,000 people added to the UK's workforce - employees. This accounts for a 1.5 percent rise year-on-year and matches up with pre-2020 employee growth figures.
The unemployment rate for the UK stands at 4 percent as of last month - this would mean around 3 million individuals - and the majority are aged between 16 and 24.