First, the good news, Clodagh Rice at the BBC reports on good news for employment figures:
The number of people on company payrolls in Northern Ireland in September was 806,700, a rise of 1.5% over the year and the largest increase of any of the UK regions.
The unemployment rate from June-August was 1.9%; this is a record low and the lowest of the UK regions.
However, the employment rate was down over the year to 70.2%, which suggests some softening in the jobs market.
Typical monthly pay in Northern Ireland was £2,241 in September, which is 6.6% higher, or £139 more, than the same time last year.
That means wages are growing faster than the rate at which prices are rising (inflation), which in August was 2.2%.
However, Northern Ireland was the lowest-earning region in the UK, despite seeing the largest annual rise in pay of the 12 UK regions.
Pay in Northern Ireland still lags behind the UK average of £2,397 a month.
Then, the bad news:
The rate of economic inactivity has been a consistent problem facing the Northern Ireland economy in recent years.
It is the proportion of people who are not either in work nor looking for a job and includes people who are sick, disabled, or students.
Economic inactivity rose to 28.5%, which is the highest of the UK regions, and the most common reason for being economically inactive was ‘long-term sickness’, accounting for 41.2% of the group.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting thinks anti-obesity jabs could help. From the BelTel:
New weight loss jabs could be given to unemployed people to help them get back into work, Wes Streeting has suggested.
The Health Secretary said “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS.The latest generation of weight loss medicine, like Mounjaro, could be administered to people in order to get them back into employment, and to ease costs to the health service, he added.
For many people, these weight loss jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS
Mr Streeting’s suggestion, in a Telegraph newspaper opinion piece, comes as the Government announced a £279 million investment from Lilly – the world’s largest pharmaceutical company – on the day the Prime Minister hosted an international investment summit.
The Health Secretary wrote: “Our widening waistbands are also placing significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11 billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.
“Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average while many others are forced out of work altogether.”
Officials have also announced plans for new real-world trials of weight loss jabs’ impact on worklessness.
A study by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly will examine the “real-world effectiveness” of anti-obesity treatment Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, on weight loss, diabetes prevention, the prevention of obesity-related complications, and the impact on NHS use.
The research will also assess whether the drug will reduce worklessness and whether it has any impact on cutting sick days among employed people.
Experts said the results of the five-year trial, which will take place in Greater Manchester, will “potentially inform the UK’s care pathway approach to the treatment of obesity”.
Mounjaro, manufactured by Lilly, has been hailed as the “King Kong” of weight loss jabs after a previous study found people taking the drug, along with support to make changes to exercise and diet, lost an average of 21% of their bodyweight over a 36-week period.
A recent report by the NHS Confederation and the Boston Consulting Group highlights how economic inactivity in the UK has risen by 900,000 since 2020, with 85% of this due to those who are long-term sick.
The authors said that two main age groups are driving the rise in long-term sickness coupled with economic inactivity – 18 to 24-year-olds and 50 to 64-year-olds, with the older group accounting for 55% of all inactive long-term sick people.
In both groups there has been a “rapid rise” in people reporting multiple health conditions, the report found.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) and mental health issues account for around 50% of all conditions reported by people who are long-term sick and economically inactive.
Mr Streeting insisted individuals will need to remain responsible for taking “healthy living more seriously”, as the “NHS can’t be expected to always pick up the tab for unhealthy lifestyles”.
Most approved anti-obesity drugs are offered with support for people to make lifestyle and dietary changes.
Figures from the Health Survey for England show that in 2022, 29% of adults in England were obese and 64% were deemed to be overweight or living with obesity.
According to Government figures, obesity costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year and is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer.
Obesity has also been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes. The NHS spends around £10 billion a year – almost 9% of its whole budget – caring for people with diabetes.
It does make sense to trial these new drugs, but often, the reasons for people being out of work are multifaceted and complex. Poor mental health is a huge factor, then you have issues like childcare or taking care of other family members. Then there are the perverse disincentives, like if you take up any work, you can lose social security benefits, and it can be extremely hard to get them back.
In my view, the obvious solution is to make it really easy for people to work a few hours a week before it starts to affect their benefits. There should be some sliding scale where you can earn X without it affecting your benefits. Let’s face it: Why would you even bother trying to work if it meant you might be worse off?
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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