FOI reference: FOI-2024-1808
You asked
Please can you provide economic inactivity by reason and “does not want a job” / “wants a job” broken down by age.
We said
Thank you for your query regarding reasons for economic inactivity by age band.
We do not produce any age-band breakdowns for reason for economic inactivity from the Labour Force Survey, due to the sample sizes involved and the reliability of the resulting estimates.
However, we do produce estimates of reason for economic inactivity for limited age bands from the Annual Population Survey, which is an annualised version of the LFS, with a larger sample, which supports more detailed breakdowns. The available published breakdowns are available from our Nomis website in the dataset annual population survey – regional – economic inactivity by reasons.
It is possible to request a more tailored breakdown by contacting our Social Surveys team - socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk. These bespoke services are subject to legal frameworks, resources, disclosure controls, and an agreement of costs in line with the ONS Charging Policy.