Worries have emerged over the “concerning” number of people in Newcastle who have left the workforce.
While there have been fears nationally about a rising number of working age people being ‘economically inactive’ since the Covid pandemic hit, particularly among the over-50s, new figures reveal that Newcastle appears to be faring far worse than other Northern cities. According to Newcastle City Council, in 2021/22 there were an estimated 40,900 city residents out of work or not actively seeking work – compared to 33,700 in 2012.
That means Newcastle is the only core city in England where levels of economic inactivity are worse now than they were a decade ago, having experienced a sharp rise in 2021. While economic inactivity rates in Newcastle have increased 21% in the last 10 years, elsewhere they have decreased by one per cent in Manchester, eight per cent in Leeds, 27% in Sheffield, 30% in Liverpool, five per cent across the North East as a whole, and eight per cent across Great Britain.
