What’s the issue?
According to official UK government data tracking working patterns and economic inactivity, there are 565,000 more economically inactive people than prior to the coronavirus pandemic. “Economically inactive” here means people of working age, defined as 16 to 64, who are unable to work or not seeking work. What’s particularly worrying is that the UK, with its overall inactivity rate of 21.4%, appears to be an outlier. The first half of 2020 (which saw the first wave of the Covid pandemic) saw an increase in inactivity rates for all 37 advanced OECD economies. But only a fifth
