Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the total number of people of working age currently out of work.

Official statistics for the number of people unemployed and economically inactive are published each month by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS), estimated using the Labour Force Survey.

The ONS headline labour market statistics define working age as between 16 and 64 years old. The latest statistics show 10.61 million people are of working age currently out of work in the UK (June-August 2024) – 1.347 million who are unemployed and 9.263 million who are economically inactive. Of the 9.263 million who are economically inactive, 2.491 million are students and 1.674 million are looking after family/home.