According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the number of persons who have left the work market since 2019 citing a long-term sickness or mental health issues has increased by 500,000. (ONS).
Long-term illness started to rise in 2019, and it then quickly increased by 363,000 between early 2020 and the three months leading up to the end of August 2022, reaching 2.5 million, according to the report.
Between June and August 2022, 28% of those who were neither working nor looking for work cited long-term illness as their cause, up from 25% at the beginning of the pandemic.
Around 0.8% of persons who were economically inactive in the four weeks leading up to September 3, 2022, claimed that long Covid was limiting them, according to ONS long Covid statistics in the UK. According to the ONS, this amounted to about 75,000 persons.
“Other health issues or disabilities” was the most prevalent and fastest-rising category of illness, while the ONS questioned if lengthy Covid was primarily to blame given that the highest increase happened in 2019.
According to the survey, the majority of people who currently give long-term illness as their excuse for not working or looking for work initially left the labor force for another reason.
According to the ONS, factors that may be contributing to the high rate of dropouts from the workforce include extended wait times at the NHS, the long-term effects of Covid, and an aging workforce.
The National Office for Statistics (ONS) stated that “further understanding is needed about the implications of lengthy Covid and the aging workforce.”
Even though the causes are still a mystery, the impact is less so. Huw Pill, the chief economist at the Bank of England, stated last week to a House of Lords committee that the UK’s severe decline in employment is maintaining pressure on inflation and suggesting additional interest rate hikes.
