Some nine million working-age people are out of work and are not looking for it either. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics this morning reveal this number has grown by 630,000 since before the pandemic began. This is an increase from the previous quarter and from the same time last year too. Now over a fifth of working age people find themselves economically inactive.
Rising inactivity has been driven by long-term sickness since the pandemic. Today’s figures reveal those inactive due to illness hit a record high of two and a half million people. There’s debate around what’s causing this with some pointing to long Covid, the state of the NHS and poor mental health.
It’s this fall in available workers that has led to the unemployment headlines of 3.5 per cent – the lowest rate for half a century.
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