Indicator
How employment status affects our health
Published
3 July 2024
Last updated
26 June 2026
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- Unemployed people are nearly five times more likely to have poor health than employees.
- Over a third of unemployed people report their health as less-than-good (poor or fair) compared with less than a fifth of employees.
There is a strong link between a person’s employment status and their health. Unemployment has consistently been found to have a negative impact on a range of health conditions, including mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and levels of self-esteem.
This chart shows people’s self-rated health grouped by their employment status in 2023–24.
- Unemployed people are nearly five times more likely to report poor health than employees – 10.3% compared to 2.2% – and are also more likely to report poor health than retired people (8.5%).
- People report their employment situation as home or family carers report similar levels of less-than-good health to unemployed people.
- Only 28.4% of unemployed people report their health as either very good or excellent, compared with 44.9% of employees.
- Full-time students report the best overall health – 87.8% with good, very good or excellent health – followed closely by self-employed people (84%). There are no notable differences in the self-reported health of employees and self-employed people.
- The data presented here are weighted estimates from Understanding Society survey, a longitudinal survey of households in the UK.
- The data presented is only for the working-age population (aged 16–64 years).
- Participants are shown a list and asked which option best describes their current employment situation.
- Employee includes people on parental leave, furlough, government training schemes and apprenticeships.
- Other includes ‘unpaid, family business’, ‘temporary laid off/ short term working’ and ‘doing something else’.
- Self-rated health is measured on a five-point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’. Other options include ‘very good’, ‘good’ and ‘fair’.
- For long-term sick and disabled people 'excellent health' has been combined with 'very good health' to suppress small sample size.
