Work and worklessness among households
Half a million more working-age people in workless households
The number of working-age people in workless households in April-June 2009 was 4.8 million, up 500,000 on a year earlier, figures from the Labour Force Survey show. The number of children in workless households rose by 170,000 to 1.9 million.
The workless household rate – that is, the percentage of households in which no adults work – increased by 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, to 16.9 per cent. This is the highest rate since 1999, and the largest year-on-year increase since 1997, from when comparable estimates are available.
The number of workless households was 3.30 million, up 240,000 from a year earlier. The number of working households was 10.7 million, down 410,000 from a year earlier.
Of those households that are workless, the workless household rate was highest for lone parent households, at 40.4 per cent, followed by one person households, at 30.1 per cent.
Across the UK, the workless household rate was highest in the North East of England, at 23.2 per cent, with the lowest rate in the East of England at 12.2 per cent.
For working-age people, the employment rate for lone parents was 56.7 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous year. This continues the increasing trend since comparable estimates are available in 1997, when it stood at 44.6 per cent. The largest fall in the employment rate over the year, for those with dependent children, was for married or cohabiting fathers, down 2.1 percentage points, to 88.8 per cent.
Source: Labour Force Survey - Household datasets
26/08/2009 - Correction: An error has been corrected in this news story, originally published on the 26 August 2009. In paragraph 6, it was stated that the largest fall in employment rate was for married and cohabiting fathers, which should have made clear that this was solely 'for those with dependent children'. This has now been corrected.
ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.
Notes: A working-age household is a household that includes at least one person of working age, that is, a man aged 16-64 or a woman aged 16-59.
A workless household is a working-age household where no-one aged 16 or over is in employment.
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Work and worklessness among households Press release