zooming in a little further on economic inactivity which the boe has been watching closely after around 500000 people dropped out of the labour market after the pandemic there’s some good and bad news in the data this morning  the good news being overall inactivity fell by 04 percentage points in the three months through april with many of those looking after families or the home going back into work also the number of worked hours passed prepandemic levels for the first time hitting a new record high the bad news is that inactivity due to longterm sickness increased to a record high in the period suggesting long waiting times understaffing and strikes in the health service and the drop in standards of living as inflation erodes incomes could be taking a toll on the nation’s health