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Average weekly earnings in Great Britain
Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK
Employment in the UK
Labour market in the regions of the UK
Vacancies and jobs in the UK
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Estimates for payrolled employees in the UK fell by 104,000 (0.3%) between March 2025 and March 2026, and decreased by 28,000 (0.1%) between February and March 2026. This is based on administrative data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).When looking at January to March 2026, the period comparable with our Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates, the number of payrolled employees fell by 94,000 (0.3%) over the year and by 20,000 (0.1%) over the quarter.The early estimate of payrolled employees for April 2026 decreased by 210,000 (0.7%) on the year, and by 100,000 (0.3%) on the month, to 30.2 million. Figures for April should be treated as provisional estimates and are likely to be revised when more data are received next month. Early months in the tax year typically carry a greater degree of uncertainty in their initial estimates, and such estimates in recent years have received larger-than-average upward revisions. Information on revisions to payrolled employees is published monthly. We have published analysis of recent revisions in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article.Estimates from January to March 2025 include the full effect of the improvements in Labour Force Survey (LFS) data collection and sampling methods introduced from January 2024 onwards. However, some volatility remains, particularly for estimates for mid-2023 and throughout 2024, and for granular breakdowns, where sample sizes are smaller. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from short-term changes, and we advise users to focus on long term movements in the data. We recommend using as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside workforce jobs, Claimant Count and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) estimates.The UK employment rate (based on the LFS) for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 75.0% in January to March 2026. This is largely unchanged on the year but up 0.1 percentage points on the latest quarter.The UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over was estimated at 5.0% in January to March 2026. This is up 0.5 percentage points on the year but down 0.2 percentage points on the latest quarter.The UK economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 years was estimated at 20.9% in January to March 2026. This is down 0.4 percentage points on the year but up 0.1 percentage points on the latest quarter.The UK Claimant Count for April 2026 increased on the month but decreased on the year to an estimated 1.699 million. The Claimant Count figure for the latest month is provisional and is subject to revisions after first publication. This is the result of later amendments to records in the administrative systems, for example, as work capability assessments conclude and more information is available about benefit claimants' ability to work.Revisions in recent months have tended to be made downwards, as shown in our LFS quality update: January 2026 article. Further information on Claimant Count revisions is published each month, and our latest LFS quality update: April 2026 article includes information on definitional differences with LFS unemployment.The estimated number of vacancies in the UK has decreased in the latest quarter, following broadly flat estimates between March to May 2025 and December 2025 to February 2026. Early estimates for February to April 2026 suggest a decrease of 28,000 (3.9%), to 705,000, compared with November to January 2026, the lowest level of vacancies since February to April 2021.Annual growth in employees' average earnings in Great Britain was 3.4% for regular earnings (excluding bonuses), and 4.1% for total earnings (including bonuses) in January to March 2026. Annual average regular earnings growth was 4.8% for the public sector, and 3.0% for the private sector. We also publish RTI pay data, which provide a provisional, timelier estimate of median pay. The two data sources generally trend well for mean total pay.Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH), was 0.1% for regular pay, and 0.8% for total pay in January to March 2026.Annual growth in real terms, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index excluding owner occupiers' housing costs (CPI), was 0.3% for regular pay, and 1.0% for total pay in January to March 2026.There were an estimated 23,000 working days lost because of labour disputes across the UK in March 2026.
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This bulletin includes data from business and social surveys, as well as data from administrative sources. It includes a combination of accredited official statistics and official statistics in development, so we advise taking this into consideration when using. Read more in Section 7: Data sources and quality.
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This section provides additional commentary to help users assess differences between the employment-related data sources we publish.The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is our survey of households and remains the lead measure for data on labour market participation. Workforce jobs (WFJ) primarily uses business surveys to measure employee jobs with the LFS covering self-employed jobs. HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data come from administrative tax records and cover only payrolled employees. Because these sources are collected and processed differently, differences in levels are expected (for example, jobs compared with people, or varying reference periods). Divergence across indicators for more than one period is not unusual. Our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology compares data sources and discusses some of the main differences.Despite the coherence challenges, the LFS remains the sole source for unemployment, economic inactivity and self-employment data, offering detailed breakdowns unavailable elsewhere.
[H3] Latest employee data
Coherence between the LFS employees and the other sources has continued to improve in recent periods, although differences do remain.Enhancements to the LFS, introduced since January 2024, mean that movements in the LFS over the past year reflect both underlying developments in the economy and improved survey quality (including obtaining more responses from employed people). As a result, while levels have moved closer to RTI, measures of change may be less aligned with RTI because they capture both real labour market shifts and changes arising from the survey improvements.We updated our estimates of WFJ in our March 2026 labour market publication. In the latest period, the employee component of WFJ showed a quarterly increase after two consecutive quarterly decreases. WFJ can sometimes lag other indicators, as seen at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.The three employee indicators over a longer time series are shown in Figure 1. RTI and the employee component of WFJ generally follow similar trends but have diverged in some periods.Over the last year, LFS employee-level estimates have aligned more closely with RTI and WFJ, helped by recent operational improvements to the LFS. As movements in the LFS over the past year reflect both underlying developments in the economy and improved survey quality, we continue to advise caution when comparing current LFS results with earlier periods.Our view remains that RTI currently provides the most reliable measure of employees. The number of payrolled employees continued to fall in the three months to March 2026. The latest flash estimate shows a large monthly decrease. Early months in the tax year typically carry a greater degree of uncertainty in their initial estimates and have received larger-than-average upward revisions in recent years.
[H3] Figure 1: LFS employees have been converging with RTI and WFJ over the last year

[H4] Comparison of employee estimates over time, UK, July to September 2014, to January to March 2026

[H4] Source: Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Workforce Jobs (WFJ) from the Office for National Statistics, and Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (RTI) from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

[H5] Notes:

Three-month averages of RTI payrolled employees have been used here for comparability.
Workforce jobs are published for the months of March, June, September and December. For presentational purposes, they have been plotted against the middle month of the time period shown. For example, March is plotted against February to April.

[H4] Download this chart Figure 1: LFS employees have been converging with RTI and WFJ over the last year
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[H3] Further information
To deepen our understanding of possible bias in our surveys, we have launched a new project to link LFS and Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) data with HMRC PAYE data at the record level. Updates on progress will be provided in our Labour market transformation articles. Alongside the labour market release in April, we published our Labour Force Survey quality update: April 2026 article. The article provides information about current response rates, trends and known biases in LFS data, and provides users with information to better understand the current quality of the data.
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Summary of labour market statistics Dataset A01 | Released 19 May 2026 Labour market statistics summary data table, including earnings, employment, unemployment, redundancies and vacancies, Great Britain and UK, published monthly.Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted Dataset | Released 19 May 2026 Earnings and employment statistics from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI), UK, NUTS 1, 2 and 3 areas and local authorities, monthly, seasonally adjusted.A guide to labour market data Methodology | Last revised 12 August 2025 Summary of labour market datasets, providing estimates of employment, unemployment, average weekly earnings, and the number of vacancies. Tables are listed alphabetically and by topic.
View all related data on our related data page.Alternatively, Nomis provides free access to the most detailed and up-to-date UK labour market statistics.
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[H3] Average weekly earnings
Average weekly earnings (AWE) are calculated using information based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey (MWSS). AWE measures money paid by employers to employees in Great Britain before tax and other deductions from pay. The estimates are not just a measure of pay rises, because they also reflect, for example, changes in the overall structure of the workforce. More high-paid jobs in the economy would have an upward effect on the earnings growth rate.
[H3] Economic inactivity
People not in the labour force who are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment. This is because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks or they are unable to start work in the next two weeks. The economic inactivity rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are not in the labour force. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates are official statistics in development.
[H3] Employment
Employment measures the number of people in paid work or who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). This differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment. The LFS estimates are official statistics in development.
[H3] Unemployment
Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is not the proportion of the total population who are unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (people in work and those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed. The LFS estimates are official statistics in development.
[H3] Claimant Count
The Claimant Count is an official statistic in development that measures the number of people who are receiving a benefit principally for the reason of being unemployed. Currently, the Claimant Count consists of those receiving Jobseeker's Allowance, and Universal Credit claimants in the "searching for work" conditionality group.
[H3] Vacancies
Vacancies are defined as positions for which employers are actively seeking recruits from outside their business or organisation. The estimates are based on the Vacancy Survey. This is a survey of businesses designed to provide estimates of the stock of vacancies across the economy, excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing (a small sector for which the collection of estimates would not be practical).
[H3] Pay As You Earn Real Time Information
These data come from HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC's) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) system. They cover the whole population, rather than a sample of people or companies, and they will allow for more detailed estimates of the population.In July 2025, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) published a letter confirming the accreditation of HMRC and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on earnings and employment from PAYE RTI.A more detailed glossary is available in our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.
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The estimates presented in this bulletin contain uncertainty. For more information, see our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys methodology.Information on revisions is available in our Labour market statistics revisions policy.Further information is available in our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.
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SUB-PAGE (http://ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms/) Employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): % – Office for National Statistics

[H1]
Employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %

[H2]
Source dataset: Labour market statistics time series (LMS)

Contact: Labour Market team

Release date: 19 May 2026
View previous versions

Next release: 18 June 2026

Series ID: LF24
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Units: %

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[H2] Download this time seriesEmployment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %

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[H2] Related time series

MGRZ
: Number of People in Employment (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted):000s

LF25
: Female employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %

MGSV
: Male employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %

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[H2]
Publications that use this data

[H2]
Contact details for this data

Labour Market team
labour.market@ons.gov.uk
Telephone
: +44 1633 455400

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SUB-PAGE (http://ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms/) Unemployment rate (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted): % – Office for National Statistics

[H1]
Unemployment rate (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted): %

[H2]
Source dataset: Labour market statistics time series (LMS)

Contact: Labour Market team

Release date: 19 May 2026
View previous versions

Next release: 18 June 2026

Series ID: MGSX
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Units: %

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[H2] Download this time seriesUnemployment rate (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted): %

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[H2] Related time series

LF24
: Employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %

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[H2]
Publications that use this data

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Contact details for this data

Labour Market team
labour.market@ons.gov.uk
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: +44 1633 455400

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SUB-PAGE (http://ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest/) Consumer price inflation, UK – Office for National Statistics

[H1] Consumer price inflation, UK: April 2026

Price indices, percentage changes, and weights for the different measures of consumer price inflation.

This is the latest release.
View previous releases

[IMG: These are accredited official statistics. Click for information about types of official statistics.]

Contact: Email Consumer Price Inflation team
Release date: 20 May 2026

Next release: 17 June 2026

[H2] Table of contents

Main points

Consumer price inflation rates

Notable movements in prices

Latest movements in CPIH inflation

Latest movements in CPI inflation

Data on consumer price inflation

Glossary

Data sources and quality

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The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.4% in the 12 months to March.
On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.8% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2025.
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.3% in the 12 months to March.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.7% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2025.
Housing and household services made the largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates; an upward contribution from a large increase in motor fuel prices was counteracted by downward effects from other categories in the transport division.
Core CPIH (CPIH excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.3% in the 12 months to March; the CPIH goods annual rate rose from 2.1% to 2.4%, while the CPIH services annual rate fell from 4.3% to 3.4%.
Core CPI (CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 2.5% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.1% in the 12 months to March; the CPI goods annual rate rose from 2.1% to 2.4%, while the CPI services annual rate fell from 4.5% to 3.2%.
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Table 1: CPIH, OOH component and CPI index values, and annual and monthly rates UK, April 2025 to April 2026
CPIH Index (UK, 2015 = 100)CPIH 12-month rate (%)CPIH 1-month rate (%)CPI Index(UK, 2015=100)CPI 12- month rate (%)CPI 1- month rate (%)OOH Index(UK, 2015=100)OOH 12-month rate (%)
2025Apr137.74.11.2138.23.51.2133.26.9
May138.04.00.2138.43.40.2133.76.7
Jun138.44.10.3138.93.60.3134.26.4
Jul138.54.20.0139.03.80.1134.05.5
Aug138.94.10.3139.33.80.3134.55.3
Sep 138.94.10.1139.33.80.0135.15.2
Oct139.53.80.4139.83.60.4135.74.8
Nov139.43.5-0.1139.53.2-0.2136.54.5
Dec 139.93.60.4140.13.40.4136.84.2
2026Jan139.43.2-0.3139.53.0-0.5137.03.9
Feb140.03.20.4140.13.00.4137.43.8
Mar140.83.40.6141.03.30.7137.73.6
Apr141.83.00.8142.12.80.7137.93.6

[H4] Download this table Table 1: CPIH, OOH component and CPI index values, and annual and monthly rates
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[H3] Figure 1: CPI annual inflation rate lowest since March 2025

[H4] CPIH, owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs component and CPI annual inflation rates, UK, April 2016 to April 2026

[H4] Source: Consumer price inflation from the Office for National Statistics

[H4] Download this chart Figure 1: CPI annual inflation rate lowest since March 2025
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The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.4% in the 12 months to March (Figure 1).On a monthly basis, CPIH rose by 0.8% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2025.The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 2.8% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.3% in the 12 months to March.On a monthly basis, CPI rose by 0.7% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 1.2% in April 2025.The main drivers of the annual inflation rate for CPIH and CPI are the same where they are common to both measures. However, the owner occupiers’ housing (OOH) costs component accounts for approximately 18% of the CPIH and is the main driver for differences between the CPIH and CPI inflation rates. This makes CPIH our most comprehensive measure of inflation. We cover this in more detail in Section 4: Latest movements in CPIH inflation and provide a commentary on the CPI in Section 5: Latest movements in CPI inflation. We also cover both CPIH and CPI in Section 3: Notable movements in prices, though the figures reflect CPIH.
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Table 2: CPIH annual and monthly inflation rates by division UK, April 2025, March 2026, and April 2026
CPIH 12-month rate (%)CPIH 1-month rate (%)
March 2026April 2026April 2025April 2026
CPIH All items 3.43.01.20.8
Food and non-alcoholic beverages 3.73.00.70.0
Alcohol and tobacco 3.32.80.40.0
Clothing and footwear -0.80.7-1.10.4
Housing and household services4.33.01.80.4
of which owner occupiers' housing costs3.63.60.20.2
Furniture and household goods-0.40.5-1.7-0.8
Health 3.12.40.3-0.3
Transport 4.74.53.83.6
Communication 4.14.54.34.7
Recreation and culture 2.81.71.20.2
Education 5.15.10.00.0
Restaurants and hotels 4.04.40.61.0
Miscellaneous goods and services 2.52.60.20.4
All goods2.12.40.30.6
All services 4.33.41.80.9
CPIH exc food, energy, alcohol and tobacco (core CPIH) 3.32.81.30.7

[H4] Download this table Table 2: CPIH annual and monthly inflation rates by division
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[H3] Figure 2: Housing and household services (principally electricity and gas) made the largest downward contribution to the change in CPIH annual inflation

[H4] Contributions to change in the CPIH annual inflation rate, UK, between March and April 2026

[H4] Source: Consumer price inflation from the Office for National Statistics

[H5] Notes:

Individual contributions may not sum to the total because of rounding.
More information on the contents of each division can be found in Table 3 of our Consumer price inflation dataset.

[H4] Download this chart Figure 2: Housing and household services (principally electricity and gas) made the largest downward contribution to the change in CPIH annual inflation
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Figure 2 shows the contributions from the 12 divisions to the change in the annual Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) inflation rate between March and April 2026. These sum to the change in the annual rate between the latest two months from 3.4% to 3.0%.The decrease in the rate into April 2026 reflected downward contributions from five divisions, partially offset by upward contributions from six divisions. The largest downward contribution came from housing and household services, particularly electricity and gas. This was partially offset by an upward contribution from clothing and footwear.
[H3] Housing and household services
The 12-month rate for housing and household services was 3.0% in April 2026, down from 4.3% in March. Prices rose by 0.4% in the month to April 2026, compared with 1.8% a year ago. The easing in the 12-month rate between March 2026 and April 2026 reflected a downward effect from electricity, where prices fell by 8.4% in April 2026 compared with a rise of 2.9% a year ago. The fall in prices came partly from changes to standard variable tariffs, where there was a change in the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) energy price cap in April 2026. Ofgem estimated that for an average household paying by direct debit for dual fuel, this equates to an annual bill of £1,641, which is a fall of £117. The price cap fell in part because global wholesale energy prices reduced in the 12-week assessment period used by Ofgem to calculate the April to June 2026 (Q2) price cap. The assessment period ran from 15 November 2025 to 13 February 2026, which was before the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East. The price cap also fell following the implementation of the UK government April energy bill announcement. The UK government stated that it would take an average of £150 off the cost of energy bills from April 2026 by making policy changes that would result in lowering the per-unit price. The fall in prices also came partly from changes to fixed tariffs which were affected by the government's energy bill announcement, but not by the Ofgem price cap. The easing in the 12-month rate also reflected a downward effect from gas, where prices fell by 4.4% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 7.5% a year ago. Fixed and variable gas tariffs were affected by the Ofgem price cap and implementation of the government announcement in a similar way to electricity tariffs. There was a slight counteracting effect resulting from domestic heating oil, where prices increased by 8.5% in April 2026, compared with a fall of 7.7% a year ago. Prices for domestic heating oil are not capped in a similar way to electricity and gas prices.   Sewerage collection costs also provided a downward effect, where prices rose by 5.8% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 25.9% a year ago. In December 2024 the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) announced that the average price increase charged by water and wastewater companies in England and Wales between 2025 and 2030 would be capped at 36%. Water and wastewater companies were allowed to frontload the price increases, resulting in larger price increases in 2025 than in 2026. As the Ofwat announcement also applied to water companies, water supply provided a further downward effect, where prices rose by 9.0% this year, compared with a rise of 26.4% a year ago.  There was also a small downward effect from owner occupiers' housing (OOH) costs. These rose by 3.6% in the 12 months to April 2026, the same rate as the 12 months to March. Before this month, the rate had slowed for 14 consecutive months. Monthly OOH costs rose by 0.2% in April 2026, the same rate as a year ago.
[H3] Recreation and culture
Recreation and culture prices rose by 0.2% in the month to April 2026, compared with 1.2% a year ago. This led to a 12-month rate of 1.7% in April 2026, down from 2.8% in March.The largest contribution to the downward effect came from package holidays. Most of the foreign holiday categories included within this category measure prices for holidays that take place during the week that index day occurs. In 2025, index day was shortly before Easter, therefore it occurred during a holiday period. In 2026, however, index day occurred over a week after Easter, so it did not occur in a holiday period. It is likely that this "Easter effect" has caused the downward effect from package holidays.  Computer game downloads also provided a large downward effect, with prices falling by 18.1% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 21.1% a year ago.
[H3] Food and non-alcoholic beverages
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 3.0% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to March. On a monthly basis, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices were little changed in April 2026, but rose by 0.7% a year ago.There were downward effects to the change in the annual rate from 5 of the 11 food and non-alcoholic beverages classes. These were:
meat, down 0.03 percentage points
sugar, jam, honey, syrups, chocolate and confectionery, down 0.03 percentage points
oils and fats, down 0.01 percentage points
coffee, tea and cocoa, down 0.01 percentage points
mineral waters, soft drinks and juices, down 0.01 percentage points
The downward contributions were counteracted slightly by upward effects from two classes. These were vegetables, up 0.01 percentage points, and milk, cheese and eggs, up 0.01 percentage points.
[H3] Clothing and footwear
Clothing and footwear prices rose by 0.7% in the 12 months to April 2026, compared with a fall of 0.8% in the 12 months to March (Figure 3). Monthly prices rose by 0.4% in April 2026, compared with a fall of 1.1% a year ago.
[H3] Figure 3: Clothing and footwear inflation rate rebounded following last month’s fall

[H4] CPIH, and clothing and footwear 12-month inflation rates, UK, April 2016 to April 2026

[H4] Source: Consumer price inflation from the Office for National Statistics

[H4] Download this chart Figure 3: Clothing and footwear inflation rate rebounded following last month’s fall
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Much of the upward effect came from garments for men, women and children where prices rose by 0.5% in April 2026 compared with a fall of 1.0% a year ago. The price movement may reflect changes in the proportion of discounted prices in the datasets which saw a large rise between March and April last year but not this year.There was also an upward effect from footwear where prices rose by 0.4% in April 2026 compared with a fall of 1.8% a year ago. The price movement may also reflect changes in the proportion of discounted prices in the datasets, which saw a large rise between March and April last year and a large fall this year.
[H3] Transport
Prices in the transport division rose overall by 4.5% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 4.7% in the 12 months to March (Figure 4). On a monthly basis, prices rose by 3.6% in April 2026, compared with a rise of 3.8% a year ago.
[H3] Figure 4: Motor fuels inflation rate was at its highest since September 2022

[H4] CPIH, transport and motor fuels 12-month inflation rates, UK, April 2016 to April 2026

[H4] Source: Consumer price inflation from the Office for National Statistics

[H4] Download this chart Figure 4: Motor fuels inflation rate was at its highest since September 2022
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The largest upward effect came from motor fuels. The average price of petrol rose by 16.6 pence per litre between March and April 2026, compared with a fall of 3.0 pence per litre between March and April 2025. The average price of petrol stood at 156.8 pence per litre in April 2026, the highest price since November 2022, when it was 163.6 pence per litre because of the war in Ukraine. Motor fuel prices are collected across the month, and an average is used in constructing the indices.Diesel prices rose by 31.3 pence per litre in April 2026, compared with a fall of 3.1 pence per litre in April 2025. The average price stood at 190.0 pence per litre in April 2026, the highest price since July 2022, when it was 197.9 pence per litre.These movements resulted in overall motor fuel prices rising by 23.0% in the 12 months to April 2026, compared with a rise of 4.9% in the 12 months to March. The April figure was the highest annual increase recorded since September 2022.The largest downward effect came from vehicle excise duty (VED) which rose by 3.9% in April 2026. Although VED is only generally updated once a year, in April 2025 it rose by 25.8% before it fell by 8.7% in May 2025 to reflect the April 2025 growth rate being overstated as a result of an error.Air f

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🛡️ Trust Signals — reviews, proof links, trust-theatre flag (Trust & Proof)

10Review mentions (all pages)

6External proof links (all pages)

Page	Reviews	Proof links
/ (home)	4	1
/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest/	4	1
/cookies/	0	1
/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms/	0	1
/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms/	0	1
/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest/	2	1

🔗 Identity & Technical Layer — schema JSON-LD: identity chains, entity gaps (Identity & Authority)

Homepage schema

{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Office for National Statistics",
    "@type": "GovernmentOrganization",
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/",
    "logo": "https://cdn.ons.gov.uk/assets/images/ons-logo/v2/ons-logo.png",
    "description": "The UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.",
    "sameAs": [
        "https://twitter.com/ONS",
        "https://www.facebook.com/ONS",
        "https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-for-national-statistics/"
    ]
}

/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest/

{
    "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "description": "Estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics for the UK.",
    "@type": "Article",
    "headLine": "Labour market overview, UK",
    "datePublished": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Labour Market team"
    },
    "image": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/may2026/c4318213",
    "mainEntityOfPage": "/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/may2026",
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "GovernmentOrganization",
        "name": "Office for National Statistics",
        "logo": "https://cdn.ons.gov.uk/assets/images/ons-logo/v2/ons-logo.png"
    },
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/may2026",
    "license": "http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"
}

/cookies/

{
    "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "@id": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/cookies",
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "breadcrumb": {
        "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
        "itemListElement": [
            {
                "@type": "ListItem",
                "item": "https://www.ons.gov.uk",
                "name": "Home",
                "position": 1
            }
        ]
    },
    "description": "",
    "name": "Cookies",
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/cookies"
}

/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms/

{
    "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "name": "Employment rate (aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted): %",
    "description": "",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Labour Market team"
    },
    "datePublished": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "discussionURL": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest",
    "keywords": [
        "LF24",
        "LMS"
    ],
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "GovernmentOrganization",
        "name": "Office for National Statistics",
        "logo": "https://cdn.ons.gov.uk/assets/images/ons-logo/v2/ons-logo.png"
    },
    "image": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms/linechartimage",
    "distribution": [
        {
            "@type": "DataDownload",
            "encodingFormat": "XLS",
            "contentUrl": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/generator?format=xls&uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms"
        },
        {
            "@type": "DataDownload",
            "encodingFormat": "CSV",
            "contentUrl": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/generator?format=csv&uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms",
    "license": "http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"
}

/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms/

{
    "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "name": "Unemployment rate (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted): %",
    "description": "",
    "@type": "Dataset",
    "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Labour Market team"
    },
    "datePublished": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2026-05-18T23:00:00.000Z",
    "discussionURL": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest",
    "keywords": [
        "MGSX",
        "LMS"
    ],
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "GovernmentOrganization",
        "name": "Office for National Statistics",
        "logo": "https://cdn.ons.gov.uk/assets/images/ons-logo/v2/ons-logo.png"
    },
    "image": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms/linechartimage",
    "distribution": [
        {
            "@type": "DataDownload",
            "encodingFormat": "XLS",
            "contentUrl": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/generator?format=xls&uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms"
        },
        {
            "@type": "DataDownload",
            "encodingFormat": "CSV",
            "contentUrl": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/generator?format=csv&uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms",
    "license": "http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"
}

/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest/

{
    "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "description": "Price indices, percentage changes, and weights for the different measures of consumer price inflation.",
    "@type": "Article",
    "headLine": "Consumer price inflation, UK",
    "datePublished": "2026-05-19T23:00:00.000Z",
    "dateModified": "2026-05-19T23:00:00.000Z",
    "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Consumer Price Inflation team"
    },
    "image": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/april2026/e7f050f7",
    "mainEntityOfPage": "/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/april2026",
    "publisher": {
        "@type": "GovernmentOrganization",
        "name": "Office for National Statistics",
        "logo": "https://cdn.ons.gov.uk/assets/images/ons-logo/v2/ons-logo.png"
    },
    "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/april2026",
    "license": "http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"
}

Your Diagnosis

Before revealing the machine’s verdict, predict the BS score for each signal. Higher = more BS (more fluff, less verifiable substance). Drag each slider, then submit to compare your judgment against the engine.

Information Density 0 / 30

Read the Narrative & headings: do hard facts (prices, dates, numbers) outweigh fluff power-words?

Semantic Coherence 0 / 20

Compare the homepage promise against the sub-page reality. Do they hold the same line?

Trust & Proof 0 / 20

Weigh review mentions against actual external proof links. Claims without verification = theatre.

Commodity Fingerprint 0 / 15

Check headings & narrative against the industry clichés in the setup above.

Identity & Authority 0 / 15

Inspect the schema: is there real Organization/Person identity with sameAs links, or gaps?

Your predicted BS score 0 / 100

💡 Stuck? Reveal the heuristic lens — how the deterministic page-auditor reads each signal (no AI, pure pattern rules)

These are the structural rules a local, deterministic auditor applies — the same lens you can use to judge each signal. They describe what to look for, not this company’s result.

Information Density

Classify each sentence as substantive or hollow. Grounding markers — numbers, currencies, dates, technical units, named entities — outweigh marketing adjectives. When fluff sits right next to hard evidence, the fluff is forgiven.

Semantic Alignment

Pull the main entities out of the H1, then check whether they actually recur through the body. A page that announces one thing and then talks about another drifts. Headings with no real sentences underneath read as pseudo-substance.

Trust & Proof

Count trust words (review, testimonial, rating, verified) against real outbound proof links (Google, Trustpilot, Clutch, G2, Yelp). Lots of trust language with zero verification links is trust theatre. Unlinked logo galleries count against it.

Commodity Fingerprint

Look at how much sentence length varies. Natural writing varies its rhythm; templated or mass-produced copy is statistically uniform. Very low variation reads as commodity content — unless unique named entities break the pattern.

Identity & Authority

Inspect the JSON-LD. Is there an Organization or Person schema, and does it carry sameAs links to real external profiles (LinkedIn, socials)? Missing schema or no identity declaration signals an anonymous entity.

Want to apply this lens yourself? The free BS Indicator Chrome extension runs these heuristic checks live on any page. Bear in mind it is a single-page, deterministic tool — it relies only on pattern rules for the page in front of it and does not perform the cross-page semantic correlation this audit uses, so its readout is a starting lens, not the full verdict.

BS Level

Government, Municipal & Public Sector

31.1 Avg BS

Based on 303 businesses audited.

✓ Less BS than average

Office for National Statistics has 28.1 points less BS than the average for Government, Municipal & Public Sector.

BS Detector

Government, Municipal & Public Sector BS: Office for National Statistics (www.ons.gov.uk)

http://www.ons.gov.uk 📍 Industry: Government, Municipal & Public Sector

3 BS / 100

Expert Verdict

A clinical masterclass in substance over signal. This is what a zero-BS website looks like: it uses language to describe data, not to manufacture value. If the UK economy is underperforming, the site reports it with the same cold precision as growth, which is the ultimate anti-BS signal.

Info Density Power-words vs. Substance ratio.

3% BS

Semantic Coherence Homepage promise vs. Sub-page reality.

0% BS

Trust & Proof Verifiable evidence vs. Trust Theatre.

0% BS

Commodity Fingerprint Detection of industry clichés/templates.

13% BS

Identity & Authority Expert verifiability & Schema depth.

0% BS

BS Reduction Prescription

Consolidate redundant H2 headings on the homepage to reduce the repetitive layout markers identified in the crawl. Ensure that the ‘preview site’ banner is removed once navigation improvements are standardized to avoid ‘innovation’ jargon clutter. Maintain the current practice of linking every H3 subheading in bulletins to a direct CSV/XLS download to preserve the current proof density.

Industry Match & Score Summary

Industry Classification

The site perfectly matches the Government, Municipal & Public Sector category. The content consists entirely of official statistical bulletins, datasets, and legislative compliance information expected from a national statistical institute.

“The score of 3 is derived from minor technical repetition on the homepage (1 point) and the necessary use of standard government template sections like 'Cookies' and 'Footer links' (2 points). The site is virtually free of bullshit, providing raw evidence for every claim made.”

See Full BS Audit →

Analysis Disclosure & Source Attribution

This training module utilizes a snapshot of public data from Office for National Statistics, captured on May 21, 2026, to demonstrate how machine logic evaluates different types of business narratives.

Purpose: This data is presented under “Fair Use” / “Educational Exception” for the purpose of forensic semantic analysis, allowing users to compare human intuition against machine-generated evaluations.

Notice to Office for National Statistics: This analysis is part of a non-adversarial audit conducted by 1 Euro SEO. The results provided by 1EuroSEO are intended as professional feedback to help improve any website’s machine-readability and authority signals. The 1EuroSEO BS Detection Tool is a free tool, and anyone can test any company to see how their content is interpreted by AI models.

Any company can use the insights for free and improve its voice by comparing it to industry clichés or competitors. When a company has updated its content, it can always submit a new audit request, which will be reflected in a new current score.

To all users: You are encouraged to visit the live site at http://www.ons.gov.uk to view the most current version of its content and learn from the source what this company is about and what it offers.

Brand AI Reputation

Training Example: Office for National Statistics – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation