Week 35, 2012: UK Workless Households

Summary: This week, we have updated our chart from this time last year with the very positive 2012 figures that have just been released.

What does the chart show? The blue line, measured against the left hand axis, shows the total number of households (in thousands) that do not contain anyone who is currently working, over the period April-June each year. This includes both the unemployed (currently looking for work) and the inactive (not looking for work), although only households which contain at least one person aged between 16-64 are counted. The red line, measured against the right hand axis, shows the subset of households where all occupants have never been in paid employment, except for casual or holiday work (also in thousands). Households containing only students aged 16-24 are excluded from this measure. Finally, the yellow line shows the number of children aged under 16 living in the households represented by the red line; that is, households where nobody has ever worked (this is also measured against the right hand axis, in thousands).

Why is the chart interesting? Last year, we pointed out that while the number of households that were currently workless was dropping, the number of households where nobody had ever worked (and more worryingly, the number of children living in these households) was still rising.  

This year, the news on all counts is good: the number of workless households continues to fall, the number of households where nobody has ever worked has fallen by a small amount, and the number of children growing up in households where nobody has ever worked is at the lowest point since 2001 (at 241,000). This is all positive, and we hope this trend can continue despite the lack of growth in the economy. 

Although the regional disparities we pointed out last year still exist, they are improving as well.  The proportion of workless households in the South East has fallen from 14.1% to 9.6%, while Yorkshire and the Humber has dropped from 21.7% to 14.2%.