. By contrast, the European Union's employment rate is 2.1 points above its level at the start of 2020. Employment is 0.6 points higher for the average country in the OECD club of rich nations. Only Latvia and Switzerland have performed worse than the UK so far, but both their employment rates are now recovering and are likely to surpass their pre-Covid peaks next year. It came as separate research from audit firm KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation suggested that job growth is slowing down in Britain, with the number of people hired into permanent new roles falling in October for the the first time in 20 months. Claire Warnes, a partner at KPMG, said: 'The looming recession is clearly impacting the UK jobs market." The IES found that in Britain, the number of people classed as "economically inactive" - neither in a job, nor looking for work - has risen by 600,000 in the past three years. This has been driven by 50,000 workers taking early retirement and around 360,000 more people suffering long-term health problems - a figure thought to include many older people who have in effect retired early because they are too ill to ever go back to a job. An increase in the number of people who are studying accounts for most of the remaining difference. Tony Wilson, director of the IES, said: 'We're quite unusual internationally. Most countries are not struggling with participation the way we are." The increase in long-term sickness has coincided with record NHS waiting lists, which reached 7 million for the first time ever in August. With lower migration and the large generation of baby boomers retiring, a sma){kind=link}
UK will be only rich country with lower employment next year than before pandemic
Britain will next year be the only developed country with fewer people in work than before the Covid crisis after a surge in early retirement and ill health, experts have said.
The UK employment rate is still 1 percentage point below its pre-pandemic level and is unlikely to bounce back in 2023, according to the Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
By contrast, the European Union’s employment rate is 2.1 points above its level at the start of 2020. Employment is 0.6 points higher for the average country in the OECD club of rich nations.
Only Latvia and Switzerland have performed worse than the UK so far, but both their employment rates are now recovering and are likely to surpass their pre-Covid peaks next year.