Four-hundred-thousand staff desert the British workforce in the ‘Great Lie-Down’ as pandemic leaves the economy with a post-Covid hangover
- 210,000 thought to be taking early retirement and more ‘long-term sickness’
- As its thought to be down to a ‘higher inactivity rate’ among working-age people
- Loss of 190,000 is said to be a reduced population from Brexit and pandemic
Hundreds of thousands of people have deserted the British workforce as the pandemic leaves the economy with a post-Covid hangover.
In what has been described as ‘The Great Lie-Down’, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects there will be 400,000 fewer people working after many chose early retirement, left the country or became ‘economically inactive’.
In its March 2022 outlook accompanying Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement, it attributed 210,000 of those lost workers to a ‘higher inactivity rate’ among working-age people.
That mainly includes those taking early retirement as well as what the OBR said was a ‘greater prevalence of long-term sickness’.
The loss of a further 190,000 is said to be due to a reduced population, partially attributed to both Brexit and the pandemic.
In what has been described as ‘The Great Lie-Down’, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects there will be 400,000 fewer people working after many chose early retirement, left the country or became ‘economically inactive’ (stock image)
The Office for National Statistics estimates there were 1.3million job vacancies in January.
James Reed, chairman of the Reed employment group, said the impact of the pandemic on workforce size has been felt in many other economies and that the phrase ‘The Great Lie-Down’ had been used in China to describe the phenomenon.
He added: ‘During the pandemic, a lot of people decided they just wanted to change their lifestyle.
‘A lot of those were over 50. That might have been a combination of health concerns or reprioritising lifestyle choices, such as family over work.’
In its March 2022 outlook accompanying Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement, it attributed 210,000 of those lost workers to a ‘higher inactivity rate’ among working-age people (stock image London Bridge)
He said there are more than eight million people in the UK aged 16 to 64 classed as ‘economically inactive’. ‘It is a huge number,’ he added.
Employers in some sectors are competing for new staff, and in some cases making ‘pretty substantial offers’, Mr Reed said. ‘Workers with particular skills – tech skills – are doing very well in the labour market.
‘If you are a worker looking for a job, this is not a problem. It’s a good thing. It’s a problem for a lot of businesses, though.’
Bethany Beckett, an economist at Capital Economics, predicted that most of the fall in the UK’s labour force since the onset of Covid-19 would eventually reverse.
However, she said this was likely to take ‘another two years or so’
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