Barriers to work

There was a time when a fall in the jobless rate would have been a cause for rejoicing and a sign of a robust labour market. The Office for National Statistics yesterday produced revised figures showing unemployment had fallen to 3.9 per cent in the three months to November, down from the previous quarter.

But these disguise something far more pernicious: the seemingly inexorable growth of idleness among great swathes of the working-age population. The rate of inactivity over the same quarter was a scarcely believable 22 per cent – more than nine million people.

These include those who have retired early and no longer want to work, millions who say they are too sick to do so, and others who would rather live off state welfare than take a low-paid job. Around 2.8 million people – 200,000 more than had been thought – claim to be too ill to seek a job. This produces an unprecedented phenomenon whereby immigrants are brought in to do jobs in a tight labour market, yet millions already here are not working.

This trend worsened during the Covid pandemic in all western countries but, while it has largely reversed elsewhere, it has continued in the UK. A report from MPS entitled “Where have all the workers gone?” resulted in measures designed to support people to enter work, increase their hours and extend their working lives.

But the Government needs first to answer why the number of long-term sick is growing here and apparently nowhere else. Officials say they remain “wholly committed to breaking down the barriers people face to work”. Judging by the latest ONS figures, they are not committed enough.