According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 500,000 more people have left the job market in Britain since 2019 and are now citing a long-term illness or mental health issues, up by about 25%.
Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, the rate of long-term illness began to rise. It then sharply increased by 363,000 between early 2020 and the three months leading up to the end of August 2022 to reach 2.5 million, according to the report.
The study increases the Bank of England’s concerns as it works to control inflation, which is now at a 40-year high. The BoE is worried that the number of people quitting the workforce in Britain will increase inflationary pressures, and the most recent data on the labor market indicated a record-breaking exodus of workers.
“More understanding is needed about the impacts of long COVID, aging workforce, and National Health Service (NHS) waiting times,” the ONS stated in a report released on Thursday that examines previously released official data.
Between June and August 2022, 28% of those who were neither working nor looking for work cited long-term illness as their reason, up from 25% at the beginning of the pandemic.
However, the majority of people who now give long-term illness as their excuse for not working or looking for a job initially left the labor force for a different reason.
“Other health problems or disabilities” were the most prevalent and fastest-rising category of illness, though the ONS questioned whether long COVID was primarily to blame given that the biggest increase occurred in 2019.
Depression and anxiety remained unchanged, but mental illness and nervous disorders increased by 22%.
ENGLAND TRAILING
Separate statistics revealed that Britain is lagging behind almost other wealthy countries in the recovery of its labor market following the COVID epidemic and is on course to become the only significant developed nation with employment below pre-pandemic levels at the beginning of 2023.
According to the Institute for Employment Studies (IES), which examined the data, a number of factors, including an increase in early retirements, chronic sickness, and decreased migration, are reducing Britain’s labor force.
Compared to 2019, there were 600,000 more people in Britain who were not employed. That is true even though unemployment has decreased to its lowest level in almost 50 years.
By historical and international standards, Britain had exceptionally high employment rates prior to the epidemic.
Only Switzerland and Latvia have had greater post-COVID employment declines among industrialized nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Neil Carberry, CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, stated that despite the record-low unemployment rate, the number of hours worked was still below that of February 2020. This makes it extremely difficult for us to produce progress and prosperity in the future.
