There is no doubt that there are hundreds of thousands of people missing from our workforce.
Analysis from the Institute for Employment Studies shows significant increases over the last year especially in the number of men off work with long-term health conditions.
Some 2.8 million people are now on long-term sick – which the IES say is around a third higher than at the start of the pandemic. And there seems to be a particular issue with younger people – the proportion economically inactive and not in education (those we used the call the “NEETs” – not in employment, education or training) is almost 11 per cent – the highest it has ever been.
What are the causes of this and how can we tackle this real barrier to the growth of our economy?
The effects of the pandemic on the health service including the failure to diagnose and treat significant physical diseases is undoubtedly part of the problem. With nearly eight million people on the NHS waiting list in England alone, it’s clear that fixing the NHS has to be a key part of fixing the economy.
But data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) looking at the way in which patients self-report long-term health conditions paint a more complicated picture. In 2023, by far the biggest self-reported cause of long-term inactivity was depression, bad nerves and anxiety which affected nearly 1.4 million people.
Should we be asking whether it is depression that causes inactivity or rather that inactivity causes depression? There was a time when work provided a stable and reliable part of our lives – an arena where we tested and proved ourselves and which gave us a clear identity as a miner or a secretary, a nurse or indeed a toolmaker.
Working for an employer rooted in a community meant workers developed a collective and personal work ethic. The trade union not only looked out for its members but disciplined those who failed to pull their weight. These shared identities gave people a sense of pride and a belief in the dignity of their labour.
But this all sounds romantic and utopian in today’s context. The jobs people do have been de-skilled, devalued and individualised. What identity can I forge as a retail worker moving between just above minimum wage employers for an extra 50p an hour? Why work hard for an employer who will sell up tomorrow?
It’s not just manual employees who no longer see the value of their work. Surveys consistently show that many of our public service workers are considering quitting their jobs.
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Much more surprisingly, our politicians also seem to have forgotten the value of work. I was astounded when, in his resignation speech, Rishi Sunak claimed the furlough scheme as one of his successes.
Paying people not to work for months and months gave the impression that work wasn’t really that important. And the left seems to agree – many support the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that would allow anyone to choose idleness over productive industry.
But if work isn’t important and isn’t where people should look for their identity and community, where should they turn? Many seem to instead look inward for meaning and are encouraged to do this by patient-centred health practitioners. But surely this is the wrong way around?
Workers, especially those just starting their careers need to look outwards to show their value to society and win the respect of their colleagues.
But to do this we need to re-dignify work. That isn’t something those out of work can do on their own. We need to move away from cheap labour, low low-skilled jobs and rebuild industries that can provide high-quality jobs people can again take pride in.