Nine million working-age Britons are currently out of work, either unemployed, long-term sick, or simply out of action. This was exacerbated by the pandemic, but the continuation of the workless trends lies somewhere between policy drift and structural issues.
Welfare dependency and skill mismatches that have accumulating over decades have created a setting in which it is hard to return to work — or even attractive, in some cases.
This has resulted in a bloated welfare bill funded by fewer of us paying more taxes.
As Matthew Elliott argues in City AM, policymakers' top question is now bi longer simply how to get the books square — it's how to get people back into work in meaningful, productive ways.
But unless corporations can produce the right jobs and training, thhis won't happen, Elliott says. Without a coordinated effort that encompasses government incentives and private enterprise, millions will be stuck in cycles of idleness.
The role of the Employer: training and incentives.
There are some good initiatives out there... for example law firm A&O Shearman employs coaching and training to reintegrate over-50s into work, while Accenture's coding bootcamps aim at younger individuals not in work or education. They're good examples, but these are anecdotal, not systemic.
What we need are strong incentives for re-entry and upskilling programmes that focus on giving people the skills required to go into expanding sectgrs such as tech, healthcare, and the green industries.
Final thoughts.....
At the end of the day it's unlikely that Britain is going to grow economically unless we get more of the workforce into meaningful jobs, and this is something we're simply not focussing on at the moment....
Sources:
Matthew Elliott, City AM (October 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS), "Economic inactivity in the UK labour market," (2025)
It's a tough problem to solve.
Here in the States, they are always saying the the unemployment rate is low, and yet so many people don't have work, or have unstable work, or have just given up.
The problem gets swept under the rug because of the huge gap between the "headline" unemployment rate and the effective unemployment rate. The headline rate (government reported) sits at a little over 3% but the effective rate was 24.3%, last I looked — that rates counts out of work, those who have given up, and those who are working but substantially below the poverty line, anyway — easily done here, where the Federal minimum wage is US $7.25 (about 5.50 GBP) and one-bedroom apartments often start around $1,000 a month, to which you have to add food, healthcare and so forth.
With very few exceptions, the world is a mess.
Meanwhile, automation and AI keeps diminishing the need for human workers...
Around 25% of the population is staggering - TBH probably we cld thrive with 50% of the population working 20 hours a week - so many jobs are totally unnecessary- distribution of wages is the real problem.
Technically people can find meaning in work without pay!
I think this is the result of credentialism. Unless you have some sort of credential, you aren't seen as capable of doing something or having a valid opinion on a matter. I can understand from a liability perspective for certain jobs. But there are many jobs that can be trained apprenticed.
Yes fair point! We cld use more trust for sure!
Congratulations @revisesociology! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts: