Workless Britain

The latest labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm the growing worklessness crisis. More than nine million people of working age are economically inactive. More than two and a half million have left the market on sickness grounds, including due to mental illnesses.

Yet there are close to one million vacancies, helping to push up the wages of those in a job, even though there is no shortage of potential employees if they were prepared to work.

Paradoxically, the employment rate continues to grow yet a large number of the new jobs – especially in the health and care sectors – are being filled by non-eu workers. Moreover, the inactivity rate among migrants is falling while it is rising among the Uk-born.

Some four and a half million workers now come from outside the EU, an increase of one million since the first Covid lockdown. This is the context for the record levels of immigration, which the Government promises to reduce but without which more jobs would go unfilled.

This all points to a deepening cultural resistance among sections of the British population to taking a job, a phenomenon that seems to have strengthened during the pandemic and since.

While many are retiring early, worryingly economic inactivity increased most among those aged 16 to 34.

Some towns, like Hartlepool and Blackpool, have a quarter of their residents not working, with many now living on benefits. Official forecasts expect that this crisis will only get worse, with surging spending on disability benefits. This is simply unsustainable.