The unemployment rate climbed marginally to 4.8 per cent in September, whilst the inactivity rate stood at 21 per cent, "largely unchanged" from the preceding quarter but beneath the levels recorded twelve months earlier.
The estimated number of vacancies across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ also dropped by 9,000, representing the 39th successive period of declining job advertisements, as reported by .
The ONS also revealed on Tuesday that wage growth excluding bonuses during the three months to August decreased to 4.7 per cent.
When bonuses were included, wage growth reached five per cent, which was 0.3 percentage points above the predictions made by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The Office for National Statistics reported there were 10,000 additional payrolled employees in August, an upward revision from an estimate indicating a decline of 8,000, providing a modest uplift to employment figures.
An initial estimate by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicated that approximately 10,000 jobs were shed in September, suggesting the worrying trend throughout the jobs market is poised to continue.
"After a long period of weak hiring activity, there are signs that the falls we have seen in both payroll numbers and vacancies are now levelling off," said Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS.
"We see different patterns across the age ranges with record numbers of over 65s in work, which the increase in unemployment was driven mostly by younger people."
Unemployment data will place pressure on Rachel Reeves
The forthcoming Budget is set to place additional strain on Chancellor Rachel Reeves, as the latest unemployment figures reveal a year of instability in the jobs market following last year's £20bn increase in employers' national insurance contributions (NICs).
The retail and hospitality industries have largely held the government responsible for imposing extra costs on businesses, with the impending Employment Rights Bill feared to have a "chilling" impact on º£½ÇÊÓƵ employment.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden commented: "The numbers of people in work and looking for work are at a record high.
"However, there are still too many people locked out of employment or training and missing out on the security a good job provides."
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith described the rising unemployment as "a disaster for the economy and a tragedy for affected families".
"The growing crisis of young people not being able to find work is a prime example of Labour taking our country in the wrong direction.
"It beggars belief that the government are making things worse with their 'back to the seventies' employment legislation, which every single business group opposes."
Richard Carter, Head of Fixed Interest Research at Quilter Cheviot, suggested that the new data indicated "some significant cracks are forming" in the jobs market.
"With the Budget looming, this is likely to continue," Carter said.
"Higher national insurance costs have placed a significant burden on businesses already this year, so they will likely hold off on any major hiring plans until they know with certainty whether any further changes lie ahead."
The latest unemployment figures are expected to unsettle Bank of England officials due to concerns that "second round effects", where high wage growth and inflation levels mutually escalate, could make it more difficult to control price growth.
External member Catherine Mann suggested last week that the Bank should maintain interest rates at a "restrictive" level to alleviate inflation worries among the British public.
These remarks imply that Mann is persuading her colleagues to keep interest rates at four per cent at the November meeting, which remains finely balanced.
Jobs market figures leave Bank of England on edge
Economists predict that Governor Andrew Bailey will cast the deciding vote, separating hawks from doves, with the August meeting having to proceed to a second vote after Alan Taylor initially voted for a 50 basis point cut.
Taylor contended that a significant downturn in the jobs market posed a risk to the º£½ÇÊÓƵ economy and would suppress price growth.
Other policymakers have indicated that high wage growth levels appear set to exert upward pressure on wage growth and inflation expectations, which have remained high.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is set to release inflation data for September in the coming week. Predictions suggest that price growth could escalate as high as four per cent, which is double the Bank's two per cent target.
"The modest further falls in both payroll employment and job vacancies in September suggest that the labour market is loosening, albeit only slowly, but wage growth is still easing only fairly gradually," commented Ashley Webb, º£½ÇÊÓƵ economist at Capital Economics.
"This suggests the Bank of England will remain more concerned over the upside risks to inflation rather than the downside risks to activity."
