The sickness absence rate of NHS doctors in England stood at **** percent in October 2022, whereas the sickness absence rate of ambulance staff stood just below ***** percent. Since January 2017, the sickness absence rate of the NHS doctors in England was lower than those of nurses, midwives, and ambulance staff. During the coronavirus pandemic, record highs of sickness absences among the NHS staff have been registered.

In the first quarter of 2025, an estimated 2.78 million people were economically inactive due to being on long-term sickness leave in the UK, slightly down from a peak of over 2.84 million people in the fourth quarter of 2023. 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 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.