Employment Minister warns ‘work desert’ and long-term illnesses are stopping the UK
Employment Secretary Alison McGovern warned that the “work desert” and high rates of long-term illness are putting towns throughout the UK on the back, leaving too many people “in the waste heap” and killing the local economy.
McGovern said when unveiling a new plan to promote recruitment through Jobcentre Plus, McGovern said that concentrated economic inactivity bags are harming individuals and the areas they live in.
“We have too many people who are essentially placed on scrap piles, which is bad for them personally,” she said. “But it is also bad for those who are highly concentrated in this location, because that town and that city are also blocked.”
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the overall economic inactivity rate in the UK is 21%. In some areas, more than half of working-age adults are unemployed rather than seeking employment.
The 2021 census shows that a portion of Stockton-on-Stockton people in Durham County have the highest inactivity rate in the UK at 67%. Knowsley, Merseyside, has the highest proportion of working-age residents, receiving appropriate notes from its GP at 31.4%.
McGovern linked the issue to the health of the country, warning that the number of people leaving the workforce due to chronic illness has risen sharply due to chronic illness.
As only 9% of UK businesses use job centres to hire employees, the Jobs and Pensions Department is writing to more than 8,000 largest employers in the country to promote the benefits of hiring through Jobcentre Plus.
The government is investing in additional staff to provide “full recruitment support” and working with employers to launch pre-employment training programs.
KFC is one of the companies that work with the program, providing paid work experience to help young people work full-time. “It’s about giving young people a fair shot,” said Shaffra Gray of KFC. “So many young people are locked in.”
According to ons Figures, between January 2025 and March 2025, 923,000 people did not conduct education, employment or training in education, employment or training.
