Four million Brits want to work - the real trouble is finding a job

That is the stark picture revealed by the latest labour market data, and it should ring alarm bells in Whitehall.

The Government came to power 18 months ago promising to raise the employment rate to 80 per cent. However, they are currently over two million people short (or 4.9 percentage points) and hopes of achieving this ambition appear to be diminishing.

Today, 3.86 million workless adults say they want a job – around 380,000 more than a year ago. This reflects more people transitioning out of economic inactivity to actively search for work, and an increase in those still inactive stating they want to work in the future.

It represents a real opportunity for Government to support more people into sustained employment in the future. But weak vacancy levels and fragile employer confidence mean jobseekers are facing an increasingly competitive labour market.

The number of available jobs in the UK has been falling for several years. There are now more than 85,000 fewer vacancies compared to the pre-pandemic period, and redundancies are rising in some sectors. Employers are facing economic uncertainty caused by a challenging global market, tariffs and reduced consumer demand. At the same time, businesses are also dealing with recent increases in the cost of hiring.

It appears young people are bearing the brunt of this slowdown. There are now over half a million people aged 18-24 who are unemployed, a figure that has risen sharply in the last three months. This represents a critical challenge, as the risks of unemployment are particularly great for young people, with research suggesting time out of the labour market can harm their future careers.

And the picture in London is also particularly concerning. Unemployment in the capital climbed to 7.2 per cent in the latest data, or 1 in 14 people. When job prospects deteriorate in the capital, it can signal trouble for the UK economy as a whole, and there remains a significant risk that unemployment will continue to increase nationally in 2026.

The situation is complex but the outcome is simple: there are now more people chasing fewer jobs. For those who have been out of work for a long time or are just starting their careers, the risk is that the barriers to employment become ever higher and harder to overcome.

That’s why Ministers must act to boost employer confidence, increase investment in growth and support the creation of secure, flexible jobs that people can actually access.

Without decisive steps in 2026, millions may remain stuck on the sidelines of the labour market - not because they don’t want to work, but because the jobs simply aren’t there.

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Ben Harrison is the Director of the Work Foundation think tank, which is based at Lancaster University.

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