According to a new Bloomberg report, citing official data, in Britain mental health issues are preventing the younger population of the nation from working, as the nation heads into a worsening economic crisis.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there has been a 29% rise in 16-24 year olds citing long-term sickness as a reason for being economically inactive, and a 42% rise among people aged 25-34 who also said the same thing. The data was reported for the second quarter of 2022, and was compared to the same period before the pandemic.

The report also revealed the youngest workers have been facing a recession and wages which are failing to keep up with double digit inflation.

Among 50-54 year olds, the “biggest driver” of inactivity among those 50-54 was listed as work-related stress. The figures showed that overall, mental health issues have produced roughly 600,000 economically inactive individuals across all age groups, which is a 10% increase over pre-pandemic levels.

Louise Murphy, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that even before the pandemic, health among the younger UK generation had been deteriorating “quite dramatically.” However she noted that following the pandemic, the situation has accelerated.

Marjorie Wallace, the CEO of mental health charity Sane, said, “There’s no doubt that Covid has accelerated the mental health problems in this age group. They’ve been out of schools, potentially exposed to fractious domestic atmospheres at home, and spent more time on social media.”

According to the NHS, one-in-four 17-19 year olds in Britain have experienced a mental health disorder over the previous year, which is an increase from the one-in-six which reported that in 2021.

Last year, the number of males who were economically inactive with mental health issues increased to 37,000, which was a rise of more than 100% since 2006, and was substantially higher than the numbers seen among women.

Murphy explained, “The reason that (deteriorating health) hasn’t been a big story in recent years is that it was this almost exactly outweighed by fewer young women being inactive to look after families. But when you split it up by type of inactivity, it’s quite clear.”