Official data shows that as the job market continues to slow down, the UK's unemployment rate has risen to its highest level in nearly four years.

The National Bureau of Statistics (ONS) said the tax rate in the first three months of this year was 4.5%, an increase of 0.2% from the previous quarter, and the highest reading rate since the summer of 2021.

The higher levels of unemployment are part of a large number of UK labour market data released on Tuesday, which shows a slowdown in growth in employers' national insurance contributions (NICs) and national living wages.

ONS said the number of economic vacancy fell by 5.3% in the quarter to April. There were 761,000 vacancies in the three months ended April, and 131,000 a year ago. In the construction industry, the biggest drop in vacancy.

Wage growth has also weakened, with regular income rising 5.6% in the three months to March, down from 5.9% in the previous three months.

Smaller wage growth will allow policymakers in England to assure banks that they cut interest rates by a quarter to 4.25% last week, but expressed concern about continued compensation strength.

In another sign of a slowdown in the labor market, the number of wage jobs fell by 47,000 or 0.2% between February and March.

Policymakers have been concerned about the slightly lower economic inactivity rate, accounting for 21.4% of the working-age population, although still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The bank is also closely monitoring the impact on the £2.5 billion job and salary of Rachel Reeves’ employer NIC. The rise of the country's living wage increased by 6.7% last month, prompting some business lobby groups to warn of rising wage costs.

ONS faces independent inquiries about long-term issues regarding the quality of its data, including the Workforce Survey, which was hit by the rate of response to collapse. National statistician Ian Diamond resigned last week on the grounds of health.