UK suffering worst labour crisis in the West

britain labour force participation work crisis long term sickness

The UK is suffering the largest labour crisis in the West amid a surge in long-term sickness, OECD figures show.

The proportion of people working or looking for a job has fallen by more in the UK than in any other rich Western country since the onset of Covid, the OECD said.

The UK’s labour force participation rate is still 1.1 percentage points lower than it was pre-pandemic, at 78.1pc.

Only Costa Rica and Colombia have suffered greater falls among the 38 mostly rich nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The UK is a significant outlier among its peers: all other G7 nations now have more people working or looking to work than before the pandemic.

Germany’s participation rate has improved by 1.7 percentage points, France’s by 1.3 points and the US has seen a 0.4-point uptick.

In Europe, the only other OECD country to have experienced a decline was Latvia where participation has fallen by 0.8 points to 76.6pc.

The OECD’s comment comes amid growing alarm among ministers over rising worklessness in the UK. A record 2.8m people are currently out of work as a result of ill health.

The surge in poor health has been linked to a rise in mental health conditions and back and neck problems. Economists have also blamed near record high NHS waiting lists.

Independent charity the Health Foundation warned on Wednesday that 700,000 more Britons will be living with a major illness by 2040 if current trends continue.

It would mean nearly one in four working-age people were suffering from a significant medical condition, marking a rise from 3m to 3.7m.

Jo Bibby, the foundation’s director of health, said: “The analysis finds that a handful of conditions contribute to most of the health inequality such as chronic pain, type 2 diabetes and anxiety and depression.

“These conditions have a significant impact on quality of life and may limit people’s ability to work for long periods of time.”

The think tank said that most of this increase would be concentrated in deprived areas.

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