Economic inactivity figures explained

14 November 2023

The government has been reacting to the publication of new data on employment and wages.

Posts shared on X by the Department for Work and Pensions, and its secretary of state Mel Stride MP, claim that the figures show economic inactivity is down by “almost 300,000 since its pandemic peak”.

That seems to be broadly correct, based on adjusted experimental economic inactivity statistics published by the Office for National Statistics. These show that in the three-month period from July to September 2023, there were 8,726,000 economically inactive people aged 16-64—that’s 285,000 fewer than in the three-month period between May and July 2022, when economic inactivity peaked at 9,011,000 (though these figures have not been adjusted).

The rate of economic inactivity has remained constant at 20.9% since the three-month period between April to June 2023, though the number of economically inactive people has increased slightly over this period.

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