Why are so many people leaving the workforce amid a UK cost of living crisis?

Business leaders fear Rishi Sunak is failing to grasp severity of situation and impact on economy

Something odd is going on in Britain's jobs market. Even as unemployment hovers close to its lowest level since the mid-1970s and businesses across the country struggle to recruit enough staff to fill roles, growing numbers are quitting the workforce altogether.

The rise of economic inactivity - when working-age adults are neither in a job nor looking for one - is one of the biggest challenges facing the economy as the country grapples with the twin threats of rampant inflation and weaker economic growth. Both are influenced by the loss of more than 600,000 missing workers" since the Covid pandemic.