UK Risks ‘Lost Generation’ with Young Workers in Mental Health Crisis
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A mental health crisis is gripping young Britons and keeping many out of the workforce, threatening to blight the prospects of a generation unless urgent action is taken, according to new research.
The Resolution Foundation warned that workers in their early 20s are now more likely to be economically inactive due to ill health than those in their 40s, after a sharp increase in the last decade, Bloomberg reported.
Over a third of 18-to-24 year olds reported having symptoms of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder from 2021 to 2022, up from less than a quarter in 2000, the think-tank said.
More than half a million were prescribed anti-depressants.
The findings suggest that the ill-health crisis that has resulted in acute labor shortages since the Covid-19 pandemic may become a long-term hindrance for the British economy and add to pressures on government spending.
Inactivity – workers neither in work nor seeking a job – is up by more than 700,000 compared with before the pandemic, tightening the labor market and fueling inflationary pressures that led the Bank of England (BOE) to raise interest rates to their highest in over a decade.
“It represents a major challenge to economic and public spending through the social security system and pressure on the National Health Service,” said Dr Jo Bibby, director of health at the Health Foundation, which funded the research.
“Without concerted cross-government action, we risk creating a ‘lost generation’ due to ill health.”
The Resolution Foundation said the number of workless young people due to ill health has more than doubled in the past decade to 190,000.
Between 2018 and 2022, a fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds with mental health problems were workless, compared to 13 per cent of those without.
The vast majority of the workless with mental health problems had qualifications only at GCSE level or below, implying that they left school at the age of 16.
The analysis came as data from Adzuna suggested that the jobs market may have turned a corner in February, with vacancies on course for their first monthly increase since October 2023 after a modest pickup in demand from employers.
In January, the number of job advertisements slipped below 900,000 for the first time since April 2021, a 15 per cent fall compared with a year earlier.
Although the figures are not seasonally adjusted, evidence of a revival in the labor market could concern BOE policymakers looking for signs of loosening pay pressures before cutting interest rates.
