Between 2019 and 2023, official data shows that the number of economically inactive working adults with depression or anxiety jumped 40pc to 1.35 million. An extra one million put depression or anxiety as their secondary reason for being unable to work, 50pc higher than in 2019.
This has had an enormous impact on the public purse. The rise in economic inactivity due to ill health, as well as people working with a health condition, has contributed to additional welfare costs of £6.8bn over the past year.
Experts warn of darker days ahead. The number of people set to live with long-term sickness is expected to rise 37pc by 2040, nine times the rate at which the working age population is forecast to grow (4pc).
The Health Foundation, which compiled the data, counts a work-limiting health condition as lasting longer than 12 months and affecting the type or amount of paid work an individual can do.
This can include depression, panic disorders, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, heart problems and other chronic or progressive illnesses. The government needs to take a serious look at why so many people are living in poor health and come up with a detailed prognosis.
Many people are still working, technically fine, but have been feeling unwell, overly stressed and disengaged for years. Labour shortages are a major barrier to economic growth, but so too is a workforce which is disconnected and distracted by their own ill-health.
Public services need to be drastically improved – official data shows that 39pc of workers waiting for NHS treatment feel that the wait has affected their job – but the private sector can also take the health of its workers much more seriously.
That doesn’t mean businesses can get away with just buying a couple of office treadmills and handing out free kombucha. They ought to make certain jobs a lot less rubbish by fundamentally improving key areas such as pay, job security, autonomy and work hours.
It is notable that high employment levels have not resulted in better job quality, with the same amount of people reporting low-quality work between 2010 and 2020, according to the Health Foundation.
Spending longer in low-quality work is associated with worse health outcomes and higher stress. Some studies have even shown that having a bad job can be worse for health than having no job at all.
Companies must take responsibility for the part they have to play in sick Britain. Winter germs are a part of life, but the background chatter about illnesses is only getting louder.
