Standing view · labour_market · Crawley
improving, held with strong confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
The employment rate in Crawley rose to 90% in the year to March 2026, and the modelled unemployment rate fell from 3.6% in the year to December 2025 to 3.2% in the year to March 2026. The proportion of residents aged 16 to 64 claiming was 4.6% in February and May and 4.5% in June. Self-employment accounted for 10.8% of residents aged 16 to 64, and 38.3% of the economically inactive were looking after family or home. Two survey measures moved favourably while the claimant rate barely moved.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Crawley. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate (model based) | 2025-12 | improving |
| Employment rate - aged 16-64 | 2026-03 | improving |
| Unemployment rate (model based) | 2026-03 | improving |
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-05 | deteriorating |
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-06 | improving |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-02 | — |
| % aged 16-64 who are self employed | 2026-03 | rising |
| % of economically inactive looking after family/home | 2026-03 | rising |