{ "id": "claimant-count", "title": "Claimant count", "category": "labour-market", "summary": "People claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed (Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit claimants required to seek work), UK, thousands, seasonally adjusted.", "unit": "thousands", "chart": "line", "volatile": false, "status": "", "notes": [], "provenance": { "publisher": "Office for National Statistics", "publisher_url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/", "source_page": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/outofworkbenefits/timeseries/bcjd/unem", "licence": "OGL-3.0", "licence_name": "Open Government Licence v3.0", "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/", "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:48:08Z", "raw_files": [ { "name": "series.json", "url": "https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/outofworkbenefits/timeseries/bcjd/unem/data", "sha256": "bb4b4fc2f2c366f4bfbcc0817ad7344490210ff342c322fe0632ac0e7752c52e", "bytes": 176933, "content_type": "application/json;charset=utf-8" } ] }, "meta": { "ons_title": "Claimant Count : K02000001 UK : People : SA : Thousands", "cdid": "BCJD", "ons_dataset": "UNEM", "release_date": "2026-10-19T23:00:00.000Z", "next_release": "17 November 2026", "ons_unit": "", "frequency": "months" }, "headline": { "label": "Claimant count", "value": 1701.0, "period": "2026 SEP" }, "series": [ { "name": "Claimant count", "points": [ { "x": "2016 OCT", "v": 783.0 }, { "x": "2016 NOV", "v": 787.2 }, { "x": "2016 DEC", "v": 780.5 }, { "x": "2017 JAN", "v": 772.3 }, { "x": "2017 FEB", "v": 768.3 }, { "x": "2017 MAR", "v": 782.8 }, { "x": "2017 APR", "v": 791.7 }, { "x": "2017 MAY", "v": 795.2 }, { "x": "2017 JUN", "v": 797.0 }, { "x": "2017 JUL", "v": 797.3 }, { "x": "2017 AUG", "v": 797.7 }, { "x": "2017 SEP", "v": 800.5 }, { "x": "2017 OCT", "v": 804.1 }, { "x": "2017 NOV", "v": 811.5 }, { "x": "2017 DEC", "v": 824.0 }, { "x": "2018 JAN", "v": 832.9 }, { "x": "2018 FEB", "v": 842.8 }, { "x": "2018 MAR", "v": 854.6 }, { "x": "2018 APR", "v": 866.2 }, { "x": "2018 MAY", "v": 880.1 }, { "x": "2018 JUN", "v": 881.4 }, { "x": "2018 JUL", "v": 892.2 }, { "x": "2018 AUG", "v": 904.1 }, { "x": "2018 SEP", "v": 926.4 }, { "x": "2018 OCT", "v": 951.1 }, { "x": "2018 NOV", "v": 973.3 }, { "x": "2018 DEC", "v": 1000.5 }, { "x": "2019 JAN", "v": 1019.1 }, { "x": "2019 FEB", "v": 1039.7 }, { "x": "2019 MAR", "v": 1059.4 }, { "x": "2019 APR", "v": 1079.5 }, { "x": "2019 MAY", "v": 1097.0 }, { "x": "2019 JUN", "v": 1126.6 }, { "x": "2019 JUL", "v": 1143.2 }, { "x": "2019 AUG", "v": 1163.5 }, { "x": "2019 SEP", "v": 1183.4 }, { "x": "2019 OCT", "v": 1211.4 }, { "x": "2019 NOV", "v": 1232.4 }, { "x": "2019 DEC", "v": 1240.3 }, { "x": "2020 JAN", "v": 1229.2 }, { "x": "2020 FEB", "v": 1227.5 }, { "x": "2020 MAR", "v": 1229.9 }, { "x": "2020 APR", "v": 2090.3 }, { "x": "2020 MAY", "v": 2657.2 }, { "x": "2020 JUN", "v": 2592.0 }, { "x": "2020 JUL", "v": 2652.4 }, { "x": "2020 AUG", "v": 2698.6 }, { "x": "2020 SEP", "v": 2681.1 }, { "x": "2020 OCT", "v": 2597.8 }, { "x": "2020 NOV", "v": 2639.5 }, { "x": "2020 DEC", "v": 2622.0 }, { "x": "2021 JAN", "v": 2572.7 }, { "x": "2021 FEB", "v": 2650.4 }, { "x": "2021 MAR", "v": 2632.9 }, { "x": "2021 APR", "v": 2598.1 }, { "x": "2021 MAY", "v": 2451.6 }, { "x": "2021 JUN", "v": 2279.8 }, { "x": "2021 JUL", "v": 2232.8 }, { "x": "2021 AUG", "v": 2146.8 }, { "x": "2021 SEP", "v": 2053.4 }, { "x": "2021 OCT", "v": 1985.9 }, { "x": "2021 NOV", "v": 1909.5 }, { "x": "2021 DEC", "v": 1840.3 }, { "x": "2022 JAN", "v": 1797.3 }, { "x": "2022 FEB", "v": 1743.5 }, { "x": "2022 MAR", "v": 1674.0 }, { "x": "2022 APR", "v": 1596.7 }, { "x": "2022 MAY", "v": 1576.8 }, { "x": "2022 JUN", "v": 1554.1 }, { "x": "2022 JUL", "v": 1525.0 }, { "x": "2022 AUG", "v": 1521.2 }, { "x": "2022 SEP", "v": 1520.9 }, { "x": "2022 OCT", "v": 1509.9 }, { "x": "2022 NOV", "v": 1522.4 }, { "x": "2022 DEC", "v": 1536.6 }, { "x": "2023 JAN", "v": 1517.5 }, { "x": "2023 FEB", "v": 1494.8 }, { "x": "2023 MAR", "v": 1523.9 }, { "x": "2023 APR", "v": 1567.3 }, { "x": "2023 MAY", "v": 1532.5 }, { "x": "2023 JUN", "v": 1536.8 }, { "x": "2023 JUL", "v": 1545.6 }, { "x": "2023 AUG", "v": 1530.9 }, { "x": "2023 SEP", "v": 1531.7 }, { "x": "2023 OCT", "v": 1539.0 }, { "x": "2023 NOV", "v": 1551.1 }, { "x": "2023 DEC", "v": 1563.2 }, { "x": "2024 JAN", "v": 1566.4 }, { "x": "2024 FEB", "v": 1562.9 }, { "x": "2024 MAR", "v": 1578.4 }, { "x": "2024 APR", "v": 1584.2 }, { "x": "2024 MAY", "v": 1612.6 }, { "x": "2024 JUN", "v": 1638.6 }, { "x": "2024 JUL", "v": 1776.3 }, { "x": "2024 AUG", "v": 1771.3 }, { "x": "2024 SEP", "v": 1772.5 }, { "x": "2024 OCT", "v": 1764.0 }, { "x": "2024 NOV", "v": 1742.8 }, { "x": "2024 DEC", "v": 1724.3 }, { "x": "2025 JAN", "v": 1714.6 }, { "x": "2025 FEB", "v": 1714.9 }, { "x": "2025 MAR", "v": 1713.6 }, { "x": "2025 APR", "v": 1702.1 }, { "x": "2025 MAY", "v": 1699.4 }, { "x": "2025 JUN", "v": 1694.4 }, { "x": "2025 JUL", "v": 1667.9 }, { "x": "2025 AUG", "v": 1662.4 }, { "x": "2025 SEP", "v": 1658.7 }, { "x": "2025 OCT", "v": 1657.0 }, { "x": "2025 NOV", "v": 1652.9 }, { "x": "2025 DEC", "v": 1650.4 }, { "x": "2026 JAN", "v": 1650.3 }, { "x": "2026 FEB", "v": 1667.4 }, { "x": "2026 MAR", "v": 1672.4 }, { "x": "2026 APR", "v": 1680.6 }, { "x": "2026 MAY", "v": 1681.9 }, { "x": "2026 JUN", "v": 1675.5 }, { "x": "2026 JUL", "v": 1663.7 }, { "x": "2026 AUG", "v": 1670.7 }, { "x": "2026 SEP", "v": 1701.0 } ] } ] }