November Labour Market Statistics: Comment from the Institute for Employment Studies
15 Nov 2022
Commenting on today's figures, Tony Wilson, Director at the Institute for Employment Studies said:
"There are now 630 thousand more people out of work than before the pandemic began and today’s figures show clearly that people aren’t becoming unemployed, they’re leaving the labour force altogether. The number of people leaving work to unemployment over the last three months was below a quarter of a million for the first time on record, while more than twice as many people left work to economic inactivity. And our analysis shows that once people become economically inactive they are less and less likely to come back to work, with the number off work for five years or more growing by more than two hundred thousand in the last few years.
“Our Commission on the Future of Employment Support launched last week showed that a large part of the problem is that people just aren’t getting the right help to get back into work. The number of jobseekers using Jobcentre Plus has halved over the last decade while the government’s Restart scheme is set to underspend by over a billion pounds. With more than a million unfilled vacancies, a shrinking economy and falling living standards, cutting access to employment support is a complete false economy. The Budget on Thursday needs to put this right, in particular by opening up Restart to more of those who are out of work and want help to get back in.”
More information on the Commission on the Future of Employment Support is available at: www.bit.ly/employment-commission
Read the detailed IES Labour Market Statistics briefing note here.