Rachel Gomez, Economist at PBE, said: 

“These latest figures show that the labour market remains incredibly tight, with the number of job vacancies standing at a record 1.3 million. A persistent participation problem continues to undermine the recovery. There are 8.7m people economically inactive, up 5% since the start of the pandemic.

“Overall economic inactivity among men and women is beginning to fall, but worryingly long-term sickness in men continues to rise. With many employers struggling to fill vacancies, they would benefit from working with expert charities to tap into a wider pool of potential employees and open up more jobs to people with health conditions.

“As real pay continues to fall, cost of living pressures will intensify, driving up demand for charities' services. Recent Bank of England data shows that wage growth has been significantly lower in the charity sector than for businesses - up only 3.8% for charities, compared to 5.6% for businesses, as of May 2022.

“Lagging pay may fuel burnout and recruitment difficulties for charities, even as demand for their help continues to spike."

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