The Office of National Statistics has published its latest labour market update with data showing both positives and negatives.
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), commented on the ONS findings, “These figures show some gentle progress on bringing people back to the labour market, and overall employment remains high.
“But we should be concerned by the high number of people who are economically inactive because they are sick, and progress on tackling inactivity overall is too slow. It is a year since the ONS reported on high worklessness, labour shortages and high inflation and too little has changed. This is holding the economy back by constraining companies’ ability to grow.
“There is work for both business and government to do to address this. Firms can help themselves by taking innovative approaches to how they hire, working with recruitment professionals.”