The number of people who were out of work because of long-term sickness has hit a new record, reaching almost 2.6 million, despite the government’s drive to get people back in employment.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data published on Tuesday suggest almost half a million more people have gone out of work because of long-term illness since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes as the NHS is struggling with record backlogs amid months of back-to-back strikes.
However, the labour market has eased slightly as more people have begun to look for work.
According to data, an estimated 2.59 million people were out of work between April and June because of long-term illness, the highest number since records began 30 years ago.
Among the working-age population (aged 16–64), almost 2.58 million were out of work because of long-term sickness, also the highest number on record.
The number was 26,000 or 2 percent up from the last quarter, and nearly half a million (449,000), or 27 percent higher than the level seen during the first quarter in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Those who were out of work because of long-term illness were categorised as being economic inactive rather than unemployed because they were not looking for work at the time.
Among all the economic inactive in the second quarter, almost 29.6 percent were inactive because of long-term illness, the highest proportion on record.
Around one in five (19.2 percent) said they wanted a job, according to ONS.
The estimates are based on the ONS’s Labour Force Survey, which has a sample size of around 100,000 people in 40,000 households.
The persistent rise in long-term illness is likely to concern ministers as a tight labour market and high wage growth are indicators of stick inflation.
It comes in spite of the Department for Work and Pensions £58 million package launched in June to help people with mild to moderate mental or physical health conditions stay in work.
It also comes as NHS England’s waiting list for hospital treatment grew to a new record of 7.57 million patients at the end of June.
The list is expected to get even longer amid ongoing NHS strikes, which has seen almost a million appointments cancelled during the past nine months.
Unemployment Increases by 0.3 Percent
However, the labour market has eased slightly despite the increase in long-term illness.The overall economic inactivity rate decreased during the second quarter as more people began to look for work.
Around 20.9 percent of the working-age population were inactive, down from 21 percent in the first quarter.
This was largely driven by those who had been looking after family and home, the 50- to 64-year-olds, and a smaller portion of 35- to 49-year-olds.
“Flows estimates show that, between January to March 2023 and April to June 2023, there was a large net movement from economic inactivity into unemployment,” the ONS said.
The unemployment rate in the second quarter increased by 0.3 percent, to 4.2 percent.
It’s slightly above a consensus supplied by Pantheon Macroeconomics that expected the rate to stay at 4 percent.
The increase in the unemployment rate was largely driven by people unemployed for up to six months, the ONS said.
The number of job vacancies from May to July was just over a million after falling for 13 consecutive periods, 66,000 less than in February to April.
Meanwhile, weekly wages jumped up by 7.8 percent in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last year, the biggest hike since the comparable record began in 2001.
