Everyone aged 16 to 64 falls into exactly one of three groups:
- Employed — in paid work.
- Unemployed — not in work but available and actively looking for a job.
- Economically inactive — neither working nor looking, e.g. students, carers, the long-term sick or the early-retired.
The key point: someone who is not in work is not automatically unemployed — they may simply be out of the labour force altogether.
Because the inactive are not counted as unemployed, a rising employment rate and a low unemployment rate can still hide a shrinking workforce if inactivity climbs. Watching employment against inactivity shows whether people leaving work are staying in the labour force or dropping out of it entirely.
Where do working-age people go?
When the employment rate falls, people either become unemployed (still in the labour force) or economically inactive (out of it). Both series below are a share of the same 16-64 population, so they sit on one percentage axis — no rebasing needed.
Employment rate and economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted. Both shown as a percentage of the working-age population.
Employment & Inactivity Trends
Employment rate for people aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted.
Economic inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64, seasonally adjusted.
Young workers vs everyone else
Employment among 16-24 year-olds is structurally lower than the whole-population rate because many young people are in full-time education. Both series are percentages, so they compare directly.
Employment rate for 16-24 year-olds compared with the overall 16-64 rate, seasonally adjusted.
Data source:Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey, using ILO definitions. Employment, inactivity and youth employment rates are published monthly as rolling three-month averages, seasonally adjusted. The reference period shown (e.g. “May–Jul”) is the full three-month window, not a single month.