Long Covid Doesn’t Explain This Many Quitters in the UK
Ailing health and shoddy care are driving many older people out of the workforce, threatening Britain’s growth prospects.
What’s going on?
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeEven as the country slides into a recession, Britain has too many job vacancies and too few workers willing or able to fill them. Unemployment is at record lows, but at least half a million more Britons are out of the workforce and not looking for work than before Covid-19, putting the UK on track to be the only advanced country next year with employment below pre-pandemic levels.
The questions puzzling economists and policy makers are why so many working-age people have dropped out — and how to reverse the trend. The stakes are high. Too much economic inactivity hampers the post-pandemic recovery, increases inflationary pressures (as Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill noted Wednesday) and threatens Britain’s future growth prospects at a time when the UK is already grappling with low growth and productivity.