Britain’s youngest workers are too sick to work

Mental health issues are keeping Britain’s workers out of the labour force at record levels

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Mental health issues are keeping Britain’s workers out of work at record levels at a time when the economy needs them the most.

Amid a bleak economic outlook, falling real wages and a creaking National Health Service, there’s mounting evidence that the country’s young working age people are suffering from long-term health issues that are keeping them out of work at increasingly alarming rates.

There was a 29 per cent increase in 16-24 year-olds citing long-term sickness as a reason for being economically inactive and a 42 per cent jump among people aged 25-34 who said the same, according to the Office for National Statistics. That data is for the second quarter of 2022 when compared to the same period before the pandemic.

It’s not just young people, either. Work-related stress was reported as the biggest driver of inactivity among 50-54 year-olds, according to government data. Overall, mental health issues account for a total of around 600,000 economically inactive people across all age groups, according to ONS data, a 10 per cent increase on pre-pandemic figures……Readmore.