Economic inactivity rate

Economic inactivity measures those that are not in work or actively seeking employment.  Individuals can be economically inactive for a wide range of reasons (both positive and negative) including that they are in education, have health issues or disabilities that prevent them from work, have caring responsibilities or have retired.  In the Jan-Dec 2020 twelve month period (the most recent data):

• 23.1 per cent of the 16-64 population in the North East LEP area was economically inactive
• this was above the England and England excluding London rates and the fourth highest rate among the eight core city LEPs
• the North East rate had decreased by 1.9 percentage points when compared to 2014
• this is a smaller percentage point decrease than nationally and the joint second lowest decrease among the eight core city LEPs
• the latest rate is 1.4 percentage points lower than a year earlier, the joint second largest decrease among the core city LEPs.

Within the North East, among local authority areas the economic inactivity rate ranged from 18.9 per cent in North Tyneside to 27.8 per cent in South Tyneside. Among constituencies it was highest in Washington and Sunderland West constituency and in South Shields (31.7 and 29.9 per cent, respectively). These statistics are based on location of residence and cover a twelve-month period, a quarter of which was before the economy was affected by Covid-19.