Domain review
Work and Productivity
Measures whether the country can generate real economic capacity.
Work and Productivity is currently rated Strained. The domain score is driven primarily by Zero-hours contracts, Inactivity due to long-term sickness and Unemployment rate (16+). Data confidence is medium across its component metrics.
Component indicators
Work and Productivity · Metrics
Employment rate (16–64)
2025
Verified official value from ONS (LF24/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Employment rate (16–64)
Latest reading
2025
Scoring breakdown
Source
Labour market overview
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- LF24/LMS
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
LFS response rates have declined sharply since 2020, requiring increased reweighting that may introduce bias into participation estimates.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (LF24/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Unemployment rate (16+)
2025
Verified official value from ONS (MGSX/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Unemployment rate (16+)
Latest reading
2025
Scoring breakdown
Source
Labour market overview
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- MGSX/LMS
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
LFS-based unemployment estimates have elevated sampling uncertainty due to falling survey response rates since 2020.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (MGSX/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Economic inactivity rate (16–64)
2025
Verified official value from ONS (LF2S/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Economic inactivity rate (16–64)
Latest reading
2025
Scoring breakdown
Source
Labour market overview
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- LF2S/LMS
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
Inactivity is a heterogeneous category mixing voluntary (study, caring) and involuntary (ill-health) states that have very different policy implications.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (LF2S/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Inactivity due to long-term sickness
2025
Verified official value from ONS (LF69/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Inactivity due to long-term sickness
Latest reading
2025
Scoring breakdown
Source
Labour market overview
- Update frequency
- Monthly
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- LF69/LMS
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
Self-reported health-related inactivity from LFS is subject to the same declining-response-rate caveat and may conflate temporary and chronic conditions.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (LF69/LMS), accessed 2026-08-13.
Output per hour worked
2025
Verified official value from ONS (LZVB/PRDY), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Output per hour worked
Latest reading
2025
Scoring breakdown
Source
Labour productivity, output per hour
- Update frequency
- Quarterly
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- LZVB/PRDY
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
Quarterly estimates are subject to significant revision as national accounts data is refined, and services productivity is notoriously difficult to measure.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (LZVB/PRDY), accessed 2026-08-13.
Business births minus closures
2024
Verified official value from ONS (Business Demography) (business birth rate − death rate), accessed 2026-06-13.
Evidence file
Business births minus closures
Latest reading
2024
Scoring breakdown
Source
Business demography
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS (Business Demography)
- Series ID
- business birth rate − death rate
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 June 2026
Known weakness
Annual frequency means the indicator lags the economic cycle by up to 18 months; VAT and PAYE registration thresholds mean very small businesses are excluded.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (Business Demography) (business birth rate − death rate), accessed 2026-06-13.
Zero-hours contracts
Jan-Mar 2026
Verified official value from Office for National Statistics (ons_zero_hours), accessed 2026-08-13.
Evidence file
Zero-hours contracts
Latest reading
Jan-Mar 2026
Scoring breakdown
Source
EMP17: People on zero-hours contracts
- Update frequency
- Quarterly
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- Office for National Statistics
- Series ID
- ons_zero_hours
- Frequency
- Quarterly
- Accessed
- 13 August 2026
Known weakness
UK Labour Force Survey; early-year rises partly reflect survey awareness, there is a 2019/20 question-wording break, and the LFS has wider data-quality issues since 2023.
Notes
Verified official value from Office for National Statistics (ons_zero_hours), accessed 2026-08-13.
Historical values
Metric trends
Historical values
Employment rate (16–64)
Latest
75.1%Employment rate (16–64) · % · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Unemployment rate (16+)
Latest
4.9%Unemployment rate (16+) · % · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Economic inactivity rate (16–64)
Latest
21%Economic inactivity rate (16–64) · % · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Inactivity due to long-term sickness
Latest
2.79million peopleInactivity due to long-term sickness · million people · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Output per hour worked
Latest
99.4index, 2023 = 100Output per hour worked · index, 2023 = 100 · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Business births minus closures
Latest
1.3percentage points (birth rate − death rate)Business births minus closures · percentage points (birth rate − death rate) · reported values, not stress scores.
Historical values
Zero-hours contracts
Latest
3.59% of people in employment on a zero-hours contractZero-hours contracts · % of people in employment on a zero-hours contract · reported values, not stress scores.
Data provenance
Sources for this domain
| Organisation | Dataset | Type | Frequency | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office for National Statistics | Labour market overview | Official | Monthly | Source ↗ |
| Office for National Statistics | Labour productivity, output per hour | Official | Quarterly | Source ↗ |
| Office for National Statistics | Business demography | Official | Annual | Source ↗ |
| Office for National Statistics | EMP17: People on zero-hours contracts | Official | Quarterly | Source ↗ |
How the Work and Productivity domain is scored
The domain score is the median of the 7 component metric stress scores. Using the median reduces sensitivity to a single anomalous metric.
Each metric stress score is calculated as:
metric_stress = clamp(0.6 × level_score + 0.3 × trend_score + 0.1 × volatility_score, 0, 100)The Work and Productivity domain carries a weight of 11% in the national index. Full methodology: methodology page.
International context · vs OECD
GDP per hour worked
Above the OECD average but mid-table in the G7, the long-standing UK productivity gap.
OECD Productivity Database ↗ · 2023 · context only, not part of the score
Faster signal · since the last release
Job vacancies (UK)
Lowest since 2021; weakening labour demand.
ONS ↗ · monthly · context only, not part of the score
Sensitivity analysis
What would move this domain?
The Work and Productivity domain score is most sensitive to its two highest-stress indicators. Meaningful improvement in either of the following metrics would be the most direct path to improving the domain score:
- 86
Zero-hours contracts
Share of people in employment whose main job is on a zero-hours contract, UK.
- 73
Inactivity due to long-term sickness
Number of people aged 16–64 inactive from the labour market specifically because of long-term illness, a post-pandemic structural concern.
Related analysis
Deep dives related to Work and Productivity
Every company on the register: how many businesses there are, what they do, how many are in trouble, and the picture in West Lothian.
The typical UK full time employee earned 766.60 pounds a week in April 2025, up 5.3 per cent in cash but only about 1.1 per cent after inflation, with a 1.86 times gap between the highest and lowest paid local authorities.
9.1 million people aged 16 to 64 are economically inactive, 20.9 per cent, with long term sickness now the single biggest reason and the fastest growing since before the pandemic, from Labour Force Survey figures the ONS itself badges as official statistics in development.
What full time workers earn and how productive each area is, the gap between the best and worst paid places, and why pay and productivity tell different stories.