Sky News reports that in the UK:

Since the pandemic almost 800,000 people have fallen out of employment into "economic inactivity", a catch-all definition that covers the nine million people of working age not currently able or looking to work.

That includes students, early retirees and stay-at-home parents and carers, but the largest and most pernicious reason is long-term sickness, which now accounts for more than 2.5 million people, an increase of more than 400,000 since COVID, driven largely by mental health conditions.

A spokesperson explained:

Living in the UK is now a bona-fide mental health condition that is causing havoc in the economy as so many people now consider it a 'stigma' to go to work and even those in work prefer to pull a regular 'sickie' whenever possible in order to keep up with their many social media feeds.

A government spokesperson responded:

This is nonsense.

Everyone knows the 'barista economy' is flourishing in the UK and more and more of our young people have aspirations to have their own OnlyFans or webcam channel by the time they are 16.