16/03/2024
Unmasking the reality: mental health's impact on employment now and in the future.
This pertinent three-minute opinion from HR Grapevine’s Serena Haththotuwa
highlights the need to challenge the ‘out-of-work’ situation in the UK and pins much on the mental health status of the unemployed. Yes, there is a situation here that needs to be resolved, not only for those ‘jobseekers’ who repeatedly turn down job offers, but also those who are genuinely unwell through poor mental health and who, according to the regulations, need not seek work. These are 2 separate groups, and Richard Drax MP infers (below) focus on the former.
There is a third category: those who have yet to attain workforce age. For this latter group, we need to strengthen core life skills and build the resilience needed to cope with what are for them very real, everyday pressures of life. This nurturing needs to be developed now and in an age-appropriate way; the earlier it starts, the better. It is beholden on every supporter of children and young persons to equip themselves with the ability to provide this nurture, not just family at home but staff in schools, extra-curricular groups…..
In the words of a Chumbawamba song - Tubthumping: “I get knocked down, but I get up again”……
“Many negative narratives get spun about the types of people who are of working age and without a job. According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this demographic make up a fifth of adults in the UK.
The ONS declare figures like this every year, however, the narrative around this information feels slightly different this time.
Simultaneous to this study being released, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that nearly four million Brits on benefits aren't looking for work.
In response, a senior Tory MP, Richard Drax, said that jobseekers who repeatedly turn down offers of employment should be forced to go into the Armed Forces amid fears of fewer people joining the army year-on-year.
Drax also said that the fact young people make up a significant proportion of those not seeking work was a sign of the growing issue of youth not being “prepared to contribute to our country”.
Alarmingly, there has been the biggest rise in economic inactivity amongst people aged 16 to 34. However, long-term illness and mental health concerns are cited as the main reasons for this demographic choosing to not take on work, and these numbers have remained high since the pandemic.
The outlandish remarks from Drax are grounded in the opinion that those of working age who aren’t employed are all lazy, benefits-claiming Brits. But this perspective, which has been whipped up over decades, fails to recognise the mental health crisis we are finding ourselves in, and the impact it’s already having on business and our economy.
A similar report from the Resolution Foundation said those in their early 20s are more likely to not be working due to ill health than those in their 40s, largely due to poor mental health. The report also finds poor mental health among young people is on the rise. The fact that this number is increasing should not be seen as usual.
If the amount of young people citing long-term sickness as a reason for them not getting a job is rising, we have a larger issue on our hands than UK adults having an over-reliance on benefits. It hints to the fact that the mental health bubble is going to burst, and this is likely to have a dramatic impact on businesses in the future.
And it isn’t because young people are lazy - which we know that they are not - it’s because they’re unwell. Only when we start to see this issue for what it really is – a mental health epidemic – can we begin to appropriately address it as a society, including in our organisations.
