The number of children living in UK households where no one has ever had a job has climbed to its highest level in more than a decade, reaching 252,000 in the second quarter of 2026, while job vacancies have fallen to their lowest level in almost 12 years outside the pandemic.
The total of children in never‑worked households was up from 168,000 a year earlier and 222,000 at the start of 2026, as UK job vacancies slipped to 707,000 in the three months to July.
