There were 2,990,200 persons aged 15-89 years in the labour force in Q2 2026, using standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria. This represented an increase of 31,300 or 1.1% over the year. This compares with an annual labour force increase of 73,500 (+2.5%) in Q2 2025 and an increase of 80,500 (+2.9%) in Q2 2024.
The number of males in the labour force increased by 0.7% (+11,700) to 1,581,700 in the year to Q2 2026, while the number of females in the labour force increased by 1.4% (+19,600) to 1,408,500. See Table QLF01.
The number of people in the labour force is influenced by changes in the size of the working age population (the demographic effect). Up to late 2008, this demographic effect added at least 30,000 to the labour force each year, driven mainly by immigration, peaking at 90,500 in Q2 2007.
The positive demographic effect started to fall in the second half of 2007 as immigration decreased. It continued to fall in 2008 and 2009 and was negative between Q3 2009 and Q1 2014. The demographic effect turned positive again in Q2 2014 and has remained positive since then, contributing an increase of 37,000 to the labour force in the year to Q2 2026.
In addition to the demographic effect, the change in the size of the labour force is influenced by changes in participation. The overall participation rate decreased to 66.0%, compared to 66.4% a year earlier. The net result of changes in individual age groups for the same period was a negative participation effect of 5,700 in Q2 2026.
For a breakdown of the demographic effect and participation effect by age, see Components table LFS Time Series.
The seasonally adjusted labour force, at 2,980,600 in Q2 2026, was up 21,000 (+0.7%) from the previous quarter, while the participation rate rose from 65.6% to 65.7% over the same period.
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