Why men are finding themselves out of work and on the scrapheap

Tim Wallace

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 2:44 AM GMT+9 6 min read

Britain’s job market is slumping, and men are bearing the brunt.

Unemployment across the nation has risen to 5.2pc, a level last seen in the pandemic. But that headline figure hides pockets of more severe pain.

London has the highest unemployment rate at 7.6pc. Young workers are suffering, with unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds at an 11-year high of 19pc. And men are struggling more than women.

The male unemployment rate hit 5.7pc in the three months to December, a whole percentage point higher than the 4.7pc registered for women.

That is the highest male jobless rate in more than a decade and the biggest gap over the female rate since the aftermath of the credit crunch.

The growing gulf between men and women can be explained in large part by the different types of work men typically tend to perform, and the nature of their employment.

Women are much more likely than men to be employed in the public sector, and particularly in roles such as health and social care.

The NHS has largely been protected from the worst of Labour’s recent tax rises, as has much of the public sector.

Men, by contrast, are more likely to work in private sector jobs, where an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions and inflation-busting minimum wage rises have hit hard.

It means men’s jobs are more at risk from economic slumps, while the female-dominated public sector is more insulated from downturns.

As the Government ramps up spending, more jobs are being created in those sectors with a large share of female staff, which tend to be in the public sector, even as men struggle in an economy hammered by tax rises and tougher regulations.

However, a surge in public sector spending has failed to generate an equivalent rise in productivity.

Spending on public services has risen by more than 20pc since 2019, but output is up only 14pc over the same period, official figures show.

It suggests Labour’s plans to boost growth are being undermined by its own policies, as the Government grants inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers while squeezing the private sector with tax raids.

“More men are looking for work, and the sectors where vacancies and jobs have declined more are male-dominated,” says Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute.

“Women are more likely to be in the growing sectors, or in the public sector, when men are more likely to work in those which have taken more of a hit.”

Manufacturing – an industry traditionally almost three-quarters male – has lost 41,000 jobs since the Rachel Reeves’ first Budget, according to payroll tax data.

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Retail, wholesale and car garages have lost 74,000.

Hospitality, which once had a largely female workforce but is now more evenly split, is down 63,000.

Meanwhile, the public sector has added 42,000 new NHS jobs, alongside 32,000 more in public administration and 14,000 more roles in education.

Gender gap explained

Men are also more likely than women to be self-employed, a status which is vulnerable to economic slumps.

This gender gap begins early: 19pc of men aged 16 to 24 are now unemployed, the highest rate since 2014.

That compares to 13.1pc of women of the same age, a rate that has been roughly stable for the past year and on a par with the peak seen during the pandemic.

Once those who are “economically inactive” are counted, 13.4pc of young men are not in employment, education or training (Neets) compared to 11.9pc of young women.

Partly this is because far more girls go to university or other forms of higher education than boys upon leaving school. Those in education don’t fall into the unemployment statistics.

However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that men who do not go on to further study are left struggling to get work in a weak jobs market.

Their prospects are further undermined by rising taxes and the minimum wage, which effectively leave a growing share priced out of employment.

And they may struggle to compete against women with a university degree.

“Women are getting better qualifications through education and being more likely to stay in education,” says Evans.

For Neet men, “this is very worrying, given the long-term damage being out of work and education has.”

“We have increased the minimum wage, particularly for young people, as well as employer National Insurance, and have done that in a flat economy.

“That picture of declining opportunities for young people overall is very worrying,” he says.

Young men to struggle

Naomi Clayton, the chief executive of the Institute for Employment Studies, says weak hiring levels mean the outlook appears bleak.

“Nearly 40pc of unemployed young people have been unemployed for more than six months. Within that, one-in-four young men who are looking for work have been unemployed for more than a year,” she says.

“You tend to have more young men actively looking for work, so unemployed rather than economically inactive, and those young men will be struggling to find employment opportunities as employers are not hiring.”

Hiring downturns often falls hardest on the young, who lack experience but are increasingly expensive to hire because of tax increases and rises in the minimum wage.

Martin Beck, the chief economist at WPI Strategy, warns that male unemployment risks becoming entrenched.

“The risk here is that a concentration of employment growth in public services and high-skill digital sectors, alongside contraction in construction and other male-dominated capital-intensive industries, may signal a structural imbalance in the UK labour market – for example, construction workers cannot instantly transition into ICT workers,” he said.

“The risk is that this could drive up inactivity among men in particular.”

Women most likely to brave jobs market

All of this has happened even as the number of inactive women plunges. There were just under 5.3 million economically inactive women of working age at the end of last year, down by almost 200,000 on the year.

Most of that fall came from a drop in the number of women who are looking after family or the home. There was also a fall in early retirement and student numbers.

It suggests that more women are being tempted to try their hand in the jobs market. More are succeeding, too.

By contrast the number of inactive men fell by a much smaller 43,000, to below 3.8 million, in part due to fewer off sick.

Referencing the grim package of economic data published on Tuesday, Professor Len Shackleton, at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “Apart from the human consequences of the labour market trends, they have strongly negative fiscal effects as tax take falls and benefit payments rise.

“They also expose the fallaciousness of government claims about promoting growth. We need a major reset of labour market policy, but there is currently little prospect of this.”

Men are struggling and Labour’s tax changes appear to be only making things worse.

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