Young people in their 20s are more likely to be out of work due to illness than people in their early 40s, according to Louise Murphy, economist at the Resolution Foundation.
Murphy was speaking at a breakout session on health, tax and politics during the Association of British Insurers (ABI) annual conference 2024 that took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London yesterday.
She noted that one area of concern in recent times was the amount of people leaving the labour force, not just people over the age of 50, but a much younger demographic – many citing ill health or disability as their reasons.
“At the start of the pandemic there was lots of discussion about older people taking early retirement. That exodus of over-50s certainly was true.
“But now when we look at those people that have left the labour market since the pandemic, actually, what we see is that young people aged 16 to 24, have overtaken over 50s to be the biggest chunk of that group.
“Around 380,000 more 16 to 24 year olds are out of the labour market.”
Murphy noted that some of those people may be in full-time education but added: “we know that a large proportion of those people are suffering from ill health.”
And its not all about the pandemic as the statistics go back a decade.
“Since 2013, the number of young people not working due to ill health has doubled,” she said.
But there are other factors facing younger employees as well.
“Quite concerning especially from young people in some lower paid sectors like retail and hospitality is a feeling of being treated a bit like a robot at work,” Murphy continued.
“There needs to be better awareness of mental health at the workplace and focusing on things like and occupational health.”
Danger of working from home
But another risk for young people comes from working from home.
Fellow panellist Tina Woods, CEO and founder of Business for Health, said: “We’re living in this bit of an experiment age because there’s a lot of young people with a lot of hybrid working.
“There’s a lot of new risk popping in, not only just isolation, mental health, but also the MSK problem with young people,” she said.
“So employers need to be very, very tuned to the risk that young people face especially with hybrid, working hours.
“I think the state has only just starting to come out of in terms of the impact that’s likely to happen some years to come.”
Speaking about the insurance industry, she added: “We need very different and long-term strategies to invest in prevention because it’s not going to come from government and the NHS.
“There’s a whole piece around data and really understanding what is driving good health, and how the industry can support all the different products and services that are able to support that.”