Standing view · labour_market · Nottingham
improving, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-08.
The job market in Nottingham has been getting stronger. The claimant count was 13,350 in December 2025, recorded as favourable against the usual pattern for its month, with claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 at 5.9 in February 2026, 5.9 in April and 5.9 again in June, also favourable. Against that, the count was 13,865 in March 2026 and the proportion 6 in May, both unfavourable. Of the economically inactive in the year to December 2025, 35.9 were students. Four favourable readings against two.
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 Nottingham. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Claimant count | 2025-12 | improving |
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-02 | improving |
| Claimant count | 2026-03 | deteriorating |
| Claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16-64 | 2026-04 | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| % of economically inactive student | 2025-12 | — |