26/08/2009

Number Of 'Workless' Families Soars

The number of working-age people in households where no one works was up half a million on a year earlier.

Official statistics for April-June 2009 gave the figure as 4.8 million people.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the workless household rate – that is, the percentage of households in which no adults work – increased by 1.1% from a year earlier, to 16.9%.

This is the highest rate since 1999, and the largest year-on-year increase since 1997, from when comparable estimates are available.

The number of children in workless households rose by 170,000 to 1.9 million.

The number of workless households was 3.30 million, up 240,000 from a year earlier.

Of those households that are workless, the workless household rate was highest for lone parent households, at 40.4%, followed by one-person households, at 30.1%.

The number of working households was 10.7 million - that's down 410,000 from a year earlier.

Across the UK, the workless household rate was highest in the North East of England, at 23.2 %, with the lowest rate in the East of England at 12.2 %.

For working-age people, the employment rate for lone parents was 56.7%.

The largest fall in the employment rate over the year was for married or cohabiting fathers, down 2.1% to 88.8%.

(GK/BMcc)

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