"tailored employment support and investing in the changes proposed by Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working Review to retain more people in the workforce in the future.” (10/10)

“That means resisting short-term welfare cuts that serve only to push people into insecure and poor quality work, doubling down on providing sustained... (9/10)

"unemployment, persistent levels of economic inactivity, stalling of job vacancies and low real terms pay growth underlines the importance of the Chancellor committing the necessary funds to drive long-term positive change in the labour market. (8/10)

"nominal wage growth. However, 17 years of stagnating wages means that, on average, workers remain only £26 a week better since August 2008.

“The Government will be walking a political and fiscal tightrope at the Autumn Budget. Nevertheless, the continued rise of... (7/10)

"And overall economic inactivity due to long-term sickness is at 2.82 million.

“With inflation still at 3.8%, workers across the country are clinging onto real wage growth at 0.5%. Reduced hiring and rising unemployment could signal the end of a record 45 months of above 4% (6)

"However, today’s figures highlight that change will not be quick or cost free to deliver as the Government aims for an increasingly distant 80% employment level. There are now 691k young people aged 18-24 who are economically inactive and not in education. (5/10)

“Employment is hovering at 75.0% and the Government is right to focus on the underlying causes of worklessness through its Keep Britain Working Review and newly announced independent review into youth inactivity. (4/10)

"Vacancies may have stopped falling, but are still 99,000 lower on the year. The mix of low numbers of vacancies and rising unemployment is creating an increasingly competitive jobs market with 2.5 jobseekers per vacancy. (3/10)

"that are holding back economic growth.

“There are now 1.79 million unemployed people in the UK. Although low by historical standards, 5.0% is the highest level for over four years since the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. (2/10)

The number of people with a work-limiting health condition is continuing to rise, which could result in even more people prematurely leaving the labour market. This is explored in our recent report: 'A Divided Workforce?'. (5/5)
www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundat...

The biggest local drivers are supply-side:
💊 Poor health before COVID
🩺 A surge in long-term health conditions
👵 Ageing workforces, esp. 60–64s
Meanwhile, job vacancies & migration had no significant local effect. (4/5)

But the rise isn’t spread evenly:
📈 Up 3–4pp in the North East, North West & Wales.
📉 Down 1–2pp in London & parts of the South East.
Rural & coastal areas have been hit hardest — while many urban centres have recovered faster. (3/5)

Since 2020, inactivity among 16–64s has risen from 20.3% to 22.2% — that’s an extra 565,000 people out of the labour market. As of mid-2025, inactivity in the UK remains 0.7 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels — making the UK an outlier amongst major economies. (2/5)

These findings highlight that the Employment Rights Bill has the potential to significantly improve access to secure work in the UK. To fully realise its benefits, we set out a series of recommendations.

Read the full report here (5/5): www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundat...

> the proportion of the UK workforce in secure jobs would have risen by 12.6 percentage points, from 44.1% to 56.7% which is equivalent to approximately 3.85 million more workers in secure employment.

These reforms could particularly benefit disadvantaged worker groups. (4/5)

The impact of day 1 dismissal rights depends on the length of statutory probation period adopted. If a six-month probation period was implemented, estimates suggest:
> severely insecure work would fall by 1.2 million people - from 6.8 million (21.4%) to 5.6 million (17.7%) (3/5)

In September, the Work Foundation released new research analysing what would have happened to levels of job security if the key reforms – the introduction of day one unfair dismissal rights and the end to exploitative zero-hour contracts – were in place in 2023. (2/5)