Mothers, older workers and disabled people hold the key to getting Britain back to work, think tank argues

830,000 more adults have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic than have joined it

New research from think tank Resolution Foundation has found that most of the people who left the work force during the pandemic were high paid professionals who were past retiring age

(EPA)

Forget trying to lure back rich retirees into the work force, mothers, disabled people and older workers hold the key to solving Britain’s unemployment problem, a new report says.

830,000 more adults have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic than have joined it; with more than three quarters of these people being aged 50 and above. However ministers have had little success trying to get them back to work.

The UK employment rate remains one percentage point lower than pre-pandemic, with employment for 16-to-64-year-olds at 75.6 per cent compared to 76.6 per cent in 2020.