Number of people out of work because of neck and back pain rises by 30pc
Working from home is fuelling a rise in long-term illness as uncomfortable desk setups prompt a spate of back and neck problems, official statisticians have suggested.
Some 262,000 people were out of work because of neck and back pain between April and June this year – an increase of 30pc from before the pandemic.
“It’s possible that increased homeworking has given rise to these kinds of conditions,” Hugh Stickland from the Office for National Statistics.
An extra 62,000 people have become economically inactive – meaning they were neither working nor looking for work – because of neck and back pain since before the pandemic.