Question 1

Why these six indicators and not others?

Accepted Answer

Because they are the smallest set that captures the working-age UK experience without overlap. Real wage growth tells you whether pay is keeping up with prices. Unemployment and youth unemployment tell you whether work is available, with the youth figure as the canary in the coal mine. Economic inactivity captures everyone outside the labour force entirely, which the headline unemployment number ignores. Vacancies tell you what employers are doing. Regular pay growth gives the nominal-not-real version of wages. Six numbers, no redundancy, all monthly cadence.

Question 2

How often does the data refresh?

Accepted Answer

The ONS Labour Market release is published around the 17th of each month for the period two months prior (e.g. mid-May release covers the rolling quarter ending March). Our Lambda fetches the new data the morning after release. CPI runs on a slightly different schedule (around the 21st). The page on this site refreshes every day at 08:00 UTC so the latest value is always within 24 hours of the underlying ONS publication.

Question 3

Why does the indicator card show a "+" or "-" badge?

Accepted Answer

The badge shows the change vs the previous month's observation, with colour coding for direction-of-good. Green means the number moved in the working-person's favour (real wages up, unemployment down, vacancies up). Red means the opposite. Some indicators are direction-neutral on a single month's data, in which case the badge is grey. The colour is purely about the working-person interpretation, not the political one.

Question 4

Where do you get the underlying data?

Accepted Answer

ONS Time Series JSON API (free, no auth, no rate limits in normal use) for the labour market figures. Bank of England Interactive Database for the rate-related context. We don't use any third-party data brokers because the originals are free and publishing on top of a proprietary feed creates an availability dependency we don't need. Source URLs are linked on each card.

Question 5

Will you add more indicators over time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The roadmap includes HMRC PAYE Real Time Information for median monthly pay (the best near-real-time wage indicator in the UK), DWP Universal Credit caseload (out-of-work and in-work claimants), DfE free-school-meal eligibility (annual but updated each January), and JRF poverty stats. The current six are the labour-market view; the additions extend toward household finance and the welfare-system reality.

Question 6

Is there a newsletter version of this?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. The page is always live and the underlying ONS data refreshes monthly via the same fetcher that powers the existing /uk-macro-dashboard. A monthly newsletter version is on the roadmap but not built; for now, bookmark the page and check it after each mid-month ONS Labour Market release.