Opinions and Lifestyle Survey data for June 2026 shows the share of adults naming employment as an important national issue has reached close to its highest level since the question was first asked in October 2022.
The figures show that concern about jobs has climbed sharply since the ONS began tracking the measure. In the period 4 February to 1 March 2026, 52 per cent of adults described employment as an important issue facing the UK — the highest proportion recorded since the question was introduced. The Office for National Statistics has published its June 2026 wave of the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, which puts that figure at 54 per cent, consistent with the survey’s position close to its highest level on record.
Compared with other concerns tracked in the February 2026 survey, employment sits alongside some of the most persistently reported worries in Britain. Cost of living led at 88 per cent, the NHS followed at 82 per cent, and the economy was cited by 69 per cent of adults. Employment, at 52 per cent, placed level with climate change and the environment, and above housing and crime, both at 56 per cent, and immigration at 58 per cent.
The labour market data sitting behind that public anxiety tells a mixed story. The UK employment rate stood at 75.0 per cent in February to April 2026, broadly unchanged on the year, and total workforce jobs reached 36.8 million in March 2026 — up 256,000, or 0.7 per cent, from December 2025. But the unemployment rate rose to 4.9 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points on the year, and vacancies fell to 707,000 in March to May 2026, down 19,000 on the previous quarter and the lowest level since February to April 2021. So while more people are in work, the pool of available jobs is shrinking.
For Kent households, the national picture matters directly. Kent residents are included within the Great Britain-wide OPN sample, and the county’s service, logistics, tourism and manufacturing sectors all depend on a functioning vacancies market. Fewer openings nationally tend to make it harder to change jobs or enter employment locally — a pressure that falls hardest on those already economically inactive. The ONS puts the economic inactivity rate for 16-to-64-year-olds at 21.0 per cent across Great Britain, meaning more than one in five working-age people are neither employed nor actively looking for work.
The ONS presents its figures without attributing causes or recommending policy. The Opinions and Lifestyle Survey is a probability-based, representative survey of adults aged 16 and over in Great Britain, with published methodology and sample size data.
Source: @ONS