In 2022 the sickness absense rate of the United Kingdom was 2.6 percent, indicating that 2.6 percent of working hours in the UK were lost to sickness during that year. Prior to 2021, the sickness absence rate in the UK had been gradually declining, with 2019 reporting the lowest rate, and 1995 having the highest rate at 3.1 percent.

Annual sickness absence rates of workers in the UK labour market, including number of work days lost, by country and region, sex and age group, and employment type.

There was a peak of just over 2.84 million people not working due to long-term sickness in the UK in the fourth quarter of 2023, with this figure falling slightly in subsequent quarters. This figure has been rising considerably since 2019, when there were just over two million people economically inactive for this reason. Since the third quarter of 2021, long-term and temporary sickness has been the main reason that people were economically inactive, accounting for 32.1 percent of economic inactivity in the fourth quarter of 2024. What is driving the increase in long-term sickness? It is unclear if there are any specific reasons for the continued growth of long-term sickness in the UK. As of 2022, some of the most common health conditions cited as the reason for long-term sickness were to do with mental health issues, with 313,00 suffering from mental illness, and a further 282,000 for depression-related illness. It is also likely that the COVID-19 pandemic caused an impact, with around 1.8 million people in April 2022 reporting an experience of Long Covid. In general, while the majority of people on long-term sick leave are over the age of 50, there has been a noticeable increase in those aged under 35 being off on long-term sickness. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of those aged between 16 and 34 on long-term sickness increased by 140,000, compared with just 32,000 for those aged between 35 and 49. UK labor market set to continue cooling in 2025? In 2022, the UK labor market was slightly more weighted in favor of workers and people looking for work than usual. Unemployment fell to historical levels, while job vacancies reached a peak of more than 1.3 million in May. Wage growth also remained strong during this period, although as this occurred at a time of high inflation, wages fell in real terms for a long period between November 2021 and June 2023. Although the job market continued to show signs of resilience, for some time, there are signs this is now changing. In December 2024, the UK unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, a joint post-pandemic high, while in the same month job vacancies fell to their lowest level since May 2021.

In 2022, the sickness absence rate in the United Kingdom's public sector was 3.6 percent, compared with 2.3 percent in the private sector. Throughout this provided time period, the sickness absence rate in the public sector has consistently been higher than that of the private sector.

In 2023/24, there were approximately 33.7 million working days lost in Great Britain due to work-related injury or illness, compared with the previous year, which had 37 million working days lost. The amount of working days lost in 2019/20 was the highest in this provided time period, with 2010/11 having the fewest in this time period, at 25,950. In terms of overall sickness absence in the UK labor market, there were approximately 185.6 million working days lost in 2022, compared with 149.8 million in the previous year. Over 2.8 million on long-term sick leave in late 2023 In the fourth quarter of 2023, the number of people economically inactive in the UK due to being on long-term sick leave reached over 2.84 million, declining only slightly to 2.77 million a year later. It is thought that Long COVID is one of the main factors behind this increase, with an estimated 1.8 million people suffering from the condition in April 2022. There has also been a rise in the number of people taking sick leave due to mental health conditions, with approximately 313,000 on long-term sick leave in 2022 due to this reason, and a further 282,000 for depression, bad nerves, or anxiety. Where most workplace injuries happen The water supply and waste management industry had the highest rate of workplace injuries reported in Great Britain in 2023/24 at 804 injuries per 100,000 workers. During the 2022/23 reporting year, the industry with the highest number of fatal accidents in the workplace was construction, which had 51. When adjusted for the size of the workforce, however, construction was second to Agriculture, which had 7.51 fatal accidents per 100,00 workers. Overall, however, the number of people getting injured at work has fallen significantly in recent years. In 2000/01 for example, there were more than a million accidents, with this falling to just 604,000 in 2023/24.

The UK government spent approximately 76 million pounds on statutory sick pay in 2022/23, compared with 57 million in 2020/21. Government expenditure on sickness benefits peaked in real terms during the 1969/70 financial year, and was replaced by statutory sick pay (SSP) in 1983. SSP was gradually phased out in the 1990s, and the costs of sickness absence passed onto employers, resulting in zero government expenditure between 2015/16 and 2019/20. The expenditure in 2020/21 and 2021/22 was due to the COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme.

The Statutory Sick Pay rate in the United Kingdom was 116.75 British pounds for the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 109.4 in 2023/24. Statutory sick pay is the minimum weekly leave pay that employers in the UK have to pay their employees after the first three days of sickness absence.

Approximately 14.8 percent of people aged 16 to 24 were unemployed in the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2024, the highest of any age group in that month. During this time period, older age groups have had much lower unemployment rates than younger ones, who have consistently had the highest unemployment rate. For almost all the age groups, the peak in the unemployment rate was recorded in 2011 when almost a quarter of young working age people were unemployed. Young adults in the labor market In the provided time period, youth unemployment was at its lowest rate in the third quarter of 2022, when it was 10.3 percent. Since then, there has been a noticeable uptick in youth unemployment, which was 14.8 percent towards the end of 2024. A more long-term trend among this age group is the increase in economic inactivity, with 40.8 percent of 16 to 24-year-old's not in work or actively looking for work in 2024. Although students or people in training account for a high share of this economic inactivity, there has also been a rise in the proportion of young adults who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), which reached a ten-year-high of 13.2 percent in late 2024. Unemployment up from low baseline in late 2024 In 2022, the UK labor market, had very low levels of unemployment along with a record number of job vacancies. Throughout 2023 and 2024, this very tight labor market began to loosen, although is still quite low by historic standards. One indicator that has stood out since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has been the number of people economically inactive due to being on long-term sick leave, which reached 2.82 million in the first quarter of 2024, and has been the main reason for economic inactivity in the UK since late 2021.