Understanding the UK’s rise in economic inactivity since 2020
Think tank: City-REDI
Author(s): Donald Houston; Kostas Kollydas; Maryna Ramcharan; Paul Sissons
October 21, 2025
This report from UK think tank City-REDI examines the UK’s rise in economic inactivity since 2020.
This research & policy briefing outlines the main findings from a two-year project Levelling Up Labour Supply funded by the Economic & Social Research Council’s UK In a Changing Europe (Award Ref. ES/X005828/2).
The main focus of the paper is on explaining the uneven geography across Great Britain in the rise since 2020 in economic inactivity (people not currently employed and not searching and/or available for work).
The paper examines the effects of changes in health, EU and non-EU migrants, labour force ageing, pandemic infection rates, job availability, productivity, skills and rurality in explaining changes to economic inactivity across 168 GB NUTS3 areas. International comparisons are also made in trends in inactivity.
Finally, policy implications are discussed in light of the fact that some places are short of workers while others are short of jobs.
