A RECORD number of people have left the job market due to long-term ill-health, official figures have revealed. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 per cent over the three months to August – the lowest level in almost 50 years. 

But the figures show that the fall has partly been driven by a sharp rise in the number of working-age people becoming “economically inactive,” meaning they are not employed nor looking for work. 

The inactivity rate increased by 0.6 per cent to 21.7 per cent in the June to August period, with almost 9 million people aged 16-64 economically inactive. 

The figures showed that 377,681 more adults are not looking for work because of long-term sickness since the start of the coronavirus pandemic — bringing the total to a record high of nearly 2.5 million. 

The spike in the number of over-50s out of work due to ill health is likely to raise concerns about the provision of employment support for workers with long-term conditions, especially those suffering from long Covid. 

According to separate ONS figures, the condition is estimated to impact the daily lives of 1.6 million people in Britain. 

Real-terms wages have also fallen again by 2.9 per cent, the figures show, as inflation continues to outstrip wage growth.

Responding to the figures, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng claimed the low unemployment rate “reminds us that the fundamentals of the British economy remain resilient.”

But Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ONS’s stats are “further evidence of the damage the Tories have caused to the economy and to family finances.”

“Real wages have fallen again, thousands of over-50s have left the labour market and a record number of people are out of work because they’re stuck on NHS waiting lists or they’re not getting proper employment support,” he said. 

The TUC called for wages to be urgently raised, with general secretary Frances O’Grady saying: “Instead of handing out bungs to bankers and big business, the government should be focussed on getting money into workers’ pockets.

“That means lifting the minimum wage to £15 an hour as soon as possible, funding decent pay rises for all public-sector workers, and allowing unions to go into every workplace to negotiate proper pay rises for all working people.”