"In spring 2004 an estimated 3 million working-age households had no adult members in work (16 per cent of all working-age households). Most of these (82 per cent) were households in which all of the adults were economically inactive. This short article describes the characteristics of workless households, and the working-age people living in them, focusing on the economically inactive subgroup. The data are derived from the Labour Force Survey household datasets.The article starts with a brief overview of the structure and labour market characteristics of UK households. It then describes the characteristics of workless households by household type, region, housing tenure and duration of worklessness. This is followed by a description of the characteristics of working-age people living in workless households by age, sex, ethnic origin, qualification levels, disability status and reasons for economic inactivity."

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