Press Kit: The State of UK Employment 2026
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Each figure is drawn from an official UK source. Copy the line and the attribution that goes with it.
The average successful sex discrimination award in 2023/24 was £53,403, nearly three times the ~£18,000 most guides quote. Discrimination awards are uncapped.
Source: Ministry of Justice Tribunals Statistics, 2023/24
The single largest employment tribunal award in 2023/24 reached around £995,000.
Source: Ministry of Justice Tribunals Statistics, 2023/24
There were 93,220 employment tribunal claims in 2023/24, up 11.3% year on year.
Source: Ministry of Justice Tribunals Statistics, 2023/24 (33,875 single and 59,345 multiple claims)
76% of employment tribunal cases did not progress to a hearing in 2023/24. Acas settled around 70% of those; the rest were withdrawn.
Source: Acas Early Conciliation and Employment Tribunal Cases Data 2023 to 2024
1.23 million UK workers were on zero hours contracts in Oct to Dec 2025, a record high.
Source: ONS EMP17 People in employment on zero hours contracts, February 2026 release
Accommodation and food services (hospitality) accounts for 27.4% of all UK workers on zero hours contracts (April to June 2026). We estimate that 19.2% of the industry's own workforce is on a zero hours contract, the highest of any industry group.
Source: ONS EMP17 Table 6 and ONS EMP13, August 2026 releases (the 27.4% is published by ONS; the 19.2% is an EmployerKit calculation from the two tables)
Zero hours numbers rose during the 2020 pandemic, from 896,000 in 2019 to 1,068,000 in 2020, rather than falling as commonly assumed.
Source: ONS EMP17 People in employment on zero hours contracts
The Employment Rights Act 2025 rolls out the biggest set of employment law changes in a generation between April 2026 and 2027, including SSP from day one, the right to guaranteed hours, fire and rehire restrictions and a cut in the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months.
Source: GOV.UK Employment Rights Act 2025 implementation roadmap and ACAS guidance
Downloadable stat cards
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£53,403
Average sex discrimination award
The average successful sex discrimination award, nearly three times what most guides quote. Discrimination awards are uncapped.
Download image1.23m
Workers on zero hours contracts
UK workers on zero hours contracts in Oct to Dec 2025, a record high, just as the right to guaranteed hours arrives in autumn 2026.
Download image93,220
Employment tribunal claims
Employment tribunal claims in 2023/24, up 11.3% year on year. 76% of cases never reached a hearing.
Download image27.4%
Of zero hours workers are in hospitality
Accommodation and food services employs just over a quarter of all UK workers on zero hours contracts, April to June 2026. We estimate 19.2% of that industry's own workforce is on zero hours.
Download imageCite this research
EmployerKit (2026) The State of UK Employment 2026. Available at: https://employerkit.com/state-of-uk-employment-2026 (Accessed: 19 October 2026).
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Methodology
All figures are drawn from official UK sources and shown with their dataset and year. Tribunal claims and awards come from the Ministry of Justice Tribunals Statistics (2023/24 and the Q1 2024/25 bulletin): 93,220 claims, an average sex discrimination award of £53,403, and a maximum award of around £995,000. The 76% figure is the share of cases that did not progress to a hearing, from Acas Early Conciliation and Employment Tribunal Cases Data 2023 to 2024, and is not a settlement rate: Acas settled around 70% of those cases and the remainder were withdrawn. Zero hours figures are from ONS EMP17 (February 2026 release): 1.23 million workers, a record high for Oct to Dec 2025. The Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline follows the GOV.UK implementation roadmap and ACAS guidance.
The tribunal risk calculator is an estimate, not a published statistic. The Ministry of Justice and Acas publish no tribunal claims by sector, so we built sector rates from the sector mix of single claims in the government's SETA 2018 survey (Great Britain, 2016/17, NHS counted in health), divided by each sector's share of ONS employee jobs and applied to 2025/26 Ministry of Justice single claim volumes (1.57 single claims per 1,000 employee jobs nationally). The blended cost per claim and the casual-mix uplift are EmployerKit planning assumptions, not published figures. It is a planning aid, not legal advice. The zero hours sector figures use ONS EMP17 Table 6 for April to June 2026; the share of each industry's workforce on zero hours is our calculation using ONS EMP13.
Source and contact
Analysis by EmployerKit Editorial. Please cite EmployerKit as the source. We answer written press queries on UK employment law and the Employment Rights Act 2025, and we will check any figure you plan to publish.
Contact: hello@employerkit.com