Jump in those who have never worked

THE number of adults who have never had a job is on the increase despite record levels of employment, a study has found.

The proportion of people of working age who have never been employed rose by 50 per cent over the past two decades, said the Resolution Foundation.

Research by the think tank found that 8.2 per cent of people aged 16-64 in Britain today – 3.4 million in total – have never had a paid job.

This is a 50 per cent increase since 1998, when 5.4 per cent of Britons had never worked.

As a result, one in three workless people in the UK today have not earned a wage.

Arguments that a generous welfare system leaves families choosing to be workless are wide of the mark, said the foundation, as both household worklessness and economic inactivity are at record lows, and out of work benefits have become less generous.

But two-thirds of the fall is driven by 16 to 17-year-olds who are still at school or college, it was found.

Employment in this age group has almost halved over the past 20 years – from 48.1 per cent in 1997-99 to just 25.4 per cent in 2017-19.

Experts have warned that young people’s careers could be blighted in later life by a lack of work experience early on.

Laura Gardiner, research director at the Resolution Foundation, said: “More and more of us are now working, with employment hitting record highs and worklessness hitting record lows, but despite this, around one in 12 working-age adults have never worked a day in their lives – a 50 per cent increase since the late 1990s.

“The rising number of people who have never had a paid job has been driven by the death of the teenage Saturday job and a wider turn away from earning while learning.

“With young people today expected to end their working lives at a later age than previous generations, it’s understandable that they want to start their working lives at a later age too.

“But this lack of work experience can create longer-term problems, particularly if they hit other life milestones like motherhood or ill-health before their careers have got off the ground.”