In the United Kingdom, as one prominent example, they are currently experiencing a dramatic spike in their inactivity rate. Around 11 million are sitting on the sidelines of the workforce today. This rate has skyrocketed since 2019, a clear alarm bell for our country. The UK’s inactivity rate is now higher than all major advanced economies – including Japan, Canada and Germany. The Office for Budget Responsibility has increasingly pointed to health crises as a key driver behind this growing trend.
Perhaps the most surprising feature of the UK’s relative laziness is the proportion of Britons on disability benefits. Millions of Americans with disabilities are still shut out of paid work, lowering the overall rate of workforce participation. Further, nearly 3.5 million people age 50 and older have left the labor force as a result of sickness, or choosing early retirement. Illness alone is responsible for an estimated 1.6 million of the people who have dropped out of the labor force.
The current state of the job market is bad, with vacancies falling to 0.8 million. Unfortunately, this decline has been constant over the last two years. The UK, as we speak, has about 5 million out of work people on Universal Credit. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is under 4.4%.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised fresh action to address these deep-rooted challenges. She wants to lower the welfare bill by making it harder for people to get certain benefits. As part of these reforms, job centres are to be rebranded the National Jobs and Careers Service. Moreover, efforts are underway to offer every 18 to 21-year-old in England opportunities for apprenticeships, training, education, or assistance in finding employment.
The government is working on a larger, radical rewrite of the complicated health and disability benefits system. This change is intended to help people find and hold jobs by giving them more focused help to get the kind of job they’re looking for. The bill’s reforms provide extra cash for areas such as the North East, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. This forward-thinking initiative seeks to prevent workers from leaving the workforce by addressing their health concerns.
Additionally, the government is continuing to increase access to mental health support and is ramping up efforts to fight obesity. These policies aim at preventing or reducing the health conditions that prevent workers from being active participants in our labor force.
Another part of the non-working population are the 2.8 million young people under age 25 not in the labor force. The majority of this cohort consists of students engaged in learning—students who aren’t necessarily looking to join the labor force at this point.
