The number of temporary employees in the UK decreased by 1.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis to a total of 1.54 million in the three-month period from April to June 2018 when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Temporary workers are self-identified when surveyed by the ONS, and they include those who are on fixed-period contracts, agency temp workers, casual workers, seasonal workers and others in temporary work.

Data also published today from the ONS also showed that the unemployment rate was 4.0% for the same three-month period, and it has not been lower since December 1974 to February 1975. Overall for the period, there were 1.36 million unemployed people, 124,000 fewer than for a year earlier.

The employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 years who were in work) was 75.6%, higher than for a year earlier (75.1%). There were 32.39 million people in work, 42,000 more than for January to March 2018 and 313,000 more than for a year earlier.

Meanwhile, there were 780,000 people (not seasonally adjusted) in employment on “zero-hours contracts” in their main job, 104,000 fewer than for a year earlier.

Senior ONS statistician Matt Hughes commented, “The number of people in work has continued to edge ahead, though the employment rate was unchanged on the quarter. However, the number of vacancies is a new record high, while the unemployment rate is now at its lowest since the winter of 1974-75.”

“For the first time since we started tracking ‘zero-hours’ contracts, we’ve seen a substantial fall in the number of people on one in their main job,” Hughes added.

“The growth in employment is still being driven by UK nationals, with a noticeable drop over the past year in the number of workers from the so-called ‘A8’ eastern European countries in particular,” Hughes said.

Estimates from ONS also showed that average weekly earnings for employees in the UK in nominal terms (that is, not adjusted for price inflation) increased by 2.7% excluding bonuses, and by 2.4% including bonuses, compared with a year earlier.

Average weekly earnings for employees in the UK in real terms (that is, adjusted for price inflation) increased by 0.4% excluding bonuses, and by 0.1% including bonuses, compared with a year earlier.

ONS figures also found that there were 829,000 job vacancies for May to July 2018. This was 20,000 more than for February to April 2018 and 51,000 more than for a year earlier. It is also the highest since comparable records began in 2001.

Redundancy figures from the ONS showed that from April to June 2018, 98,000 people had become redundant in the three months before the Labour Force Survey interviews, little changed compared with January to March 2018 but 14,000 fewer than for a year earlier.

When comparing the estimates for employees and self-employed people for April to June 2018 with those for a year earlier: employees increased by 369,000 to 27.45 million (84.8% of all people in work) while self-employed people decreased by 38,000 to 4.77 million (14.7% of all people in work).

Julia Kermode, chief executive of The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), commented on the self-employment and the temporary employment figures, “Although the decreases are small in percentage terms, the figures appear to indicate that employers are currently less inclined to engage contingent workers than they were this time last year.”