Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 12 September 2024

• The total number of online job adverts on 6 September 2024 increased during the last week, returning to the level seen in early August 2024, but was 12% lower than the equivalent period of 2023 (Adzuna).

• Around one-quarter (26%) of businesses reported that turnover had decreased in August 2024 when compared with July 2024, 14% reported an increase, while 53% reported no change; these figures are broadly stable from last month (initial results from Wave 116 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey).

• The estimated demand for fuel per transaction had an annual growth rate of 1% in the week to 1 September 2024, down 1 percentage point from the previous week; the annual growth rate in average fuel prices was negative 6%, down 2 percentage points from the previous week (aggregated anonymised card spending data and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)).

• Between 7 August 2024 and 1 September 2024, most people reported that their cost of living had either increased or stayed the same compared with a month ago, with only 3% saying it had decreased; when asked about ways cost of living had increased over the last month, over 9 in 10 people (93%) reported increases in the price of their food shop, while half (50%) reported increases in gas or electricity bills (initial results from our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN)).

• Around 3 in 10 adults (29%) believed they would be unable to pay an unexpected but necessary expense of £850 between the 7 August 2024 and 1 September 2024, this was a slight increase on the quarter of adults (25%) who believed they would be unable to pay the unexpected expense between the 5 and 28 July 2024 (initial results from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) from the Office for National Statistics).

• The System Average Price (SAP) of gas decreased by 1% in the week to 8 September 2024, when compared with the previous week, from 3.067 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) to 3.028 p/kWh; over the same week, the System Price of electricity increased by 16%, from 7.569 p/kWh to 8.756 p/kWh (National Gas Transmission, Elexon).

• The daily average number of UK flights decreased by 1% in the week to 8 September 2024 when compared with the previous week, and was 2% higher than the equivalent week of 2023 (EUROCONTROL).

Notes:

1. Card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions and cash-to-card conversion.
2. Revolut adjustments to user count are at an aggregate level and as such age bands may not adjust evenly.
3. Indicators with SA in the title have been seasonally adjusted.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or experimental estimates, which represent useful economic and social concepts.

Seasonal Adjustment

Seasonal adjustment is the identification and removal of consistent and systematic variation in time series that is associated with the time of year. For more information on seasonal variation, and how we implement seasonal adjustment, see Section 2: How we measure real-time indicators of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as "official statistics in development". Until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics". Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.

We are developing how we collect and produce the data to improve the quality of these statistics. Find out more in our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Once the developments are complete, we will review the statistics with the Statistics Head of Profession. We will decide if the statistics are of sufficient quality and value to be published as official statistics, or if further development is needed. Production may be stopped if they are not of sufficient quality or value. Users will be informed of the outcome and any changes.

We value your feedback on these statistics. If you would like to get in touch, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Dataset release dates and intended release frequency

Latest release dates and intended release frequency of our associated datasets are available in this section. Please note that there may be some change to the intended release frequency for a variety of reasons, such as data availability. If you would like further information about any of these datasets, or previous release dates, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Weekly data release

• The UK spending on credit and debit cards dataset was last updated on 16 May 2024.

• The Revolut spending on debit cards dataset was last updated on 1 February 2024.

• The Automotive fuel spending dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The Online job advert estimates dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The Company incorporations, voluntary dissolutions and compulsory dissolutions dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The System Average Price of gas dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The System Price of electricity dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

• The Weekly shipping indicators dataset was last updated on 5 April 2024.

• The Daily UK flights dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

Fortnightly data release

• The Transactions at Pret A Manger dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

Monthly data release

• The Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset was last updated on 15 August 2024.

• The Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset was last updated on 22 August 2024.

• The Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset was last updated on 12 September 2024.

Quarterly data release

• The Sales and jobs in small businesses dataset was last updated on 1 August 2024.

Strengths and limitations

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society, using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys, or official statistics in development.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators, so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.