[ad_1]
The Office for National Statistics found a link between the virus and rising levels of employee inactivity since the pandemic hit.
Article author:
Release Date:
December 06, 2022 • 2 hours ago • Read for 3 minutes
Article content
More than 200,000 Britons who left the UK labor market since July of the year reported suffering from prolonged COVID, official figures show.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Analysis by the Office for National Statistics has found a link between the virus and rising levels of workforce inactivity due to the pandemic, which is causing serious economic problems for the UK.
Article content
The link between Covid and inactivity, which measures people who neither have a job nor are looking for one, has long been suspected, but so far there has been little conclusive evidence. These figures highlight why so many people have left the workforce since the pandemic, something that is driving up wages and inflation.
“Today’s analysis shows that people of working age are less likely to participate in the labor market after developing COVID symptoms than they were before they were infected with the coronavirus,” said Daniel Ayoubkhani, ONS statistician for data and analysis for social care and health. “Furthermore, this association between self-reported prolonged COVID and inactivity for reasons other than education or retirement is strongest among those aged 50 years or older.”
Advertisement 3
Article content
The ONS was cautious about drawing a firm connection but said “prolonged COVID may have contributed to declining levels of participation in the UK labor market during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Inactivity has increased by 600,000 since the start of 2020, with long-term illness being the main factor. Falling participation is a serious problem in the UK, the only major economy where fewer people are working than before the pandemic.
That participation gap is causing labor shortages, reducing the UK’s growth potential and adding to inflationary pressures.
The ONS found that inactivity increased by 217,000 among people with self-reported chronic COVID symptoms from July 2022. Their inactivity rate increased by 3.8 percentage points, compared with 0.4 percentage points among those who self-reported prolonged no-Covid symptoms.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The ONS defines prolonged covid as symptoms lasting more than four weeks after confirmed or suspected infection.
The study found that people who caught Covid and recovered were less likely to be inactive three months after becoming ill than those who were not infected, perhaps because they were “less likely to leave employment for a short period of time or immediately after returning. – Absence of period sickness.”
-
How the modern tragedy of chronic COVID is affecting our lives and our economy
-
Inez Jabalpurwala: Prolonged Covid contributes to mental health crisis that disrupts workforce, economy
-
Prolonged COVID: Invisible public health crisis fueling labor shortages
-
Why the fight against COVID-19 won’t end with high vaccination rates
Advertisement 5
Article content
However, people who still reported symptoms of Covid eight months to a year after infection were between 34 percent and 45 percent more likely to be inactive than before they caught the virus.
The analysis also found that older workers who caught the virus were equally likely to retire, whether or not it turned into prolonged Covid.
“Among 50 to 64-year-olds who were in employment 12 to 20 weeks after first test-confirmed infection, the transition to retirement occurred at similar rates for participants self-reported longer with and without COVID,” the ONS said.
“People with prolonged Covid may be less likely to leave or enter employment due to ill health.”
The research was based on a sample of 206,000 participants aged 16 to 64 and not in full-time education.
Bloomberg.com
Advertisement
[ad_2]
Source link
