Tag: #workforce

ICAEW chart of the week: What do we all do?

My chart for ICAEW this week looks at what we all do for a living and how the government wants to move more of us from economically inactive categories into the workforce.

Pie chart breaking down UK population between 29.0m employees (42%), 4.3m self-employed (6%), 1.5m unemployed (2%), 3.0m ill or disabled (4%), 2.7m homemakers and other (4%), 12.3m retired (18%), 13.9m children under 16 (20%), 2.5m students 16 and over (4%).

My chart of the week for ICAEW looks at what we do for a living, according to the latest labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the third quarter between July and September, when the estimated population was 69.2m. 

According to the ONS, 29m people (42% of the total population) were in employment, 4.3m (6%) were self-employed and 1.5m (2%) were unemployed seeking work. In total this is fractionally just over half of the population (50.3%).

The other (almost) half of the population were not in work. They comprised 3m (4%) not working because of illness or disability, 2.7m (4%) homemakers or not working for other reasons, 12.3m (18%) people in retirement, 13.9m (20%) children under the age of 16, and 2.5m (4%) students aged 16 or over who were not also working.

The 33.3m who were employed or self-employed include 1.5m people aged 65 or more and 1.1m students in full-time education who also work. Around 5.9m work in the public sector. Overall, there are 24.9m people working full-time and 8.4m working part-time, while some 1.2m workers have more than one job. 

The 1.5m unemployed include 0.2m students in full-time education who are actively seeking work. Meanwhile, the 12.3m in retirement include 1.1m people who are under the age of 65.

The ONS also reports that 1.9m of those who are economically inactive between the ages of 16 and 64 would like a job, including 0.7m of those who are not working because of illness or disability. 

The government is very keen to get as many as possible of the 1.5m people who are unemployed, and the 3.0m not working because of illness or disability, into work. This would benefit the public finances twice over by not only reducing the cost to the exchequer of welfare payments paid out, but also by increasing the amount of tax receipts coming in.

Recent statements from government ministers have suggested that their strategy includes tightening the eligibility criteria for illness and disability benefits, in addition to providing additional support to help people back into the workforce.

The government is also looking at how it can encourage some of the 1.1m retirees below the age of 65 back into work, as well as persuading more of us to work beyond the statutory retirement age of 66.

This chart was originally published by ICAEW.

ICAEW chart of the week: Workforce

My chart this week looks at the changes in the numbers of people between 16 and 64 who are employed, unemployed or economically inactive over the past three years.

Three section column chart showing changes in those employed, unemployed and inactive aged 16-64 over the the last three years. Employed: -486,000 (to quarter ending Feb 2021) +520,000 (to quarter ending Aug 2022) = net change +34,000 Unemployed: +385,000, -518,000 = net -133,000 Inactive: +218,000 +106,000 = +324,000

According to the Office for National Statistics, on a seasonally adjusted basis the working-age population (ages 16 to 64) comprised 31,366,000 people in employment, 1,297,000 unemployed and 8,675,000 economically inactive in the quarter from June to August 2019.

As our chart this week illustrates, the numbers in employment fell by 486,000 over the following 18 months to the quarter from December 2019 to February 2021. Over the same period, there were 385,000 more people aged 16 to 64 recorded as being unemployed and 106,000 more as economically inactive. This was a net increase of just 5,000 as the normal growth in population was offset by migrants returning home at the start of the pandemic and a higher death rate than normal as a consequence of the pandemic.

Over the subsequent 18 months to the quarter from June to August 2022, employment of those between the ages of 16 and 64 recovered as the economy reopened, growing by 520,000, while unemployment fell by 518,000. However, the number economically inactive continued to grow, increasing by a further 218,000.

This resulted in a net movement over the three years of 225,000, comprising 34,000 more people in employment (to 31,400,000 in the quarter ended August 2022), 133,000 fewer unemployed (to 1,164,000), and 324,000 more who were economically active (to 8,999,000).

The numbers who were economically inactive in the June to August 2022 quarter comprised 2,419,000 students (up 103,000 from three years previously), 1,726,000 homemakers (down 254,000), 2,662,000 who were sick (up 424,000), 1,181,000 in early retirement (up 61,000) and 1,011,000 others (down 10,000).

This is not the total workforce, which in the quarter to August 2022 also includes 1,355,000 aged 65 or over in employment (up 27,000 from three years previously), 24,000 who were registered as unemployed (up 7,000) and 10,994,000 economically inactive (up 355,000), the majority of whom were retired.

Not shown in the chart is the change in the number of vacancies, which fell by 188,000 in the 18-month period from 812,000 in the quarter from June to August 2019 to 624,000 in the quarter from December 2020 to February 2021 and then rose by 635,000 over the following 18 months to 1,259,000 in the quarter from June to August 2022, a net movement of +447,000 over three years.

There has been much debate about the rise in the number of people who are categorised as long-term sick, which is believed to be down to a combination of ‘long Covid’ and NHS treatment backlogs.

The big jump in vacancies over the last three years – to a point where there are now more vacancies than the number of people recorded as unemployed – is putting significant pressure on businesses that are struggling to recruit new workers. 

This position could change rapidly, however, with many commentators concerned that the cost-of-doing business crisis could result in a sharp rise in unemployment and a fall in vacancies over the next six months as consumers reign back spending in response to energy costs, rapidly rising prices, higher mortgage payments and an increasingly uncertain economic outlook.

This chart was originally published by ICAEW.