Concerns voiced at the impact of long term illness on size of Peterborough's workforce

Concerns have been voiced about the number of people in Peterborough suffering long term sickness and unable to seek work.

The alarm has been sounded by a business leader as new figures show that nationally the unemployment rate is falling while at the same time many companies are struggling to fill their vacancies.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that across the country while the rate of unemployment has fallen by 0.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent during the three months to July, it has in part been driven by a growth in long term sickness with lengthy delays in getting NHS treatment being blamed for the trend.

The most recent ONS figures show that in Peterborough, the number of people who are out of work due to long term sickness for the year April 2021 to March this year stands at 7,200 people.

That is up by 100 people for the year January 2021 to December 2021.

During April 2019 to March 2020, which covers the early months of Covid-19, the number of people unable to work because of long term sickness stood at 8,900. That fell to 8,200 during July 2019 to June 2020.

There are currently 28,500 people in Peterborough who are classed as economically inactive – able to work but not looking for a job with just shy of 28 per cent made of students while those on long term sick make up 25.1 per cent.

It comes as Peterborough firms are embroiled in a tough competition to find enough staff to fill what has been described as a record level of vacancies.

Vic Annells, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “The shortage of people available to work seems to be the biggest priority for businesses at the moment.

“It is a really significant issue and is bound to led to problems as firms cannot find the staff they need today let along for future expansion.

He added: “It is scary that so many people are not making themselves available for work.”