London's Economy Today - Issue 246 - February 2023

Key information

Publication type: General

Publication date: Thursday 23 February 2023

UK economy appears to have avoided recession in 2022
London loses out in distribution of levelling up funds
London appears to be weathering the cost of living crisis better than the rest of the UK

The underlying trend in passenger journeys on London public transport remains marginally upward with 184.8 million passenger journeys registered between 11 December 2022 and 7 January 2023, although this was 55.3 million journeys less than the previous period. 240.1 million passenger journeys were registered between 13 November 2022 and 10 December 2022. In the latest period, 68.5 million of all journeys were underground journeys and 116.3 million were bus journeys.
In January the sentiment of London’s businesses as measured by the PMI new business activity index increased slightly and became just positive at 50.2 in January an increase from 49.5 in December. An index reading above 50.0 indicates an increase in new orders on average across firms from the previous month.
In January 2023, property surveyors in London saw an increase in the net balance of those reporting falling prices. The net balance index was -41 and in December 2022 it was -30. The net balance index measures the proportion of property surveyors reporting a rise in prices minus those reporting a decline.

There were 1.37 million Evening & Night workers in London in 2022, down from a peak of 1.6 million in 2017. The decline is likely due to a change in usual work patterns rather than a decrease in the overall workforce.
Most Evening & Night workers in London worked days and evenings, but almost two fifths also worked nights to some degree. More than half of those who worked nights also worked shifts in their job.
Almost a third of all Evening & Night workers in London were in Professional occupations in 2022, as these occupations saw an increase in people working evenings since 2020.