Just under 16% of UK households where adult of working age is living have no adults in work, 1.4% fall on year earlier

The number of households where there are no adults in work has fallen to the lowest level since 1996, according to official data.

Just under 16% of UK households that include an adult of working age are “workless”, according to the Office for National Statistics. This latest figure, which relates to the second quarter of 2014, marked a fall of 1.4% on the same period a year earlier and is the biggest annual fall since records began 18 years ago.

The latest data means there are 271,000 households that have moved from workless to having at least one working occupant in the past year. It is the fourth consecutive year that the number of workless households has fallen, after an increase in 2010 when redundancies as a result of the economic downturn took their toll.

Then, 19% of UK households were workless, though this was still lower than the 21% when records began in 1996.

The number of workless households has fallen to a historic low, according to the ONS.

“These figures tie in with the marked improvement that we have seen in the UK labour market this year and also in 2013,” said Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS. “This is obviously welcome news, although there is still the restraint on many households’ purchasing power coming from low earnings growth. And it needs also to be borne in mind that a significant amount of the rise in employment has been in low-paid jobs and in self-employment.”

A significant contribution to the fall in the number of workless households has been made by lone-parent households with children. In 1996, almost 52% of these households were workless; now the figure stands at 33%. In the past year alone, the number fell by 3.7%. However, the figure is still high compared with households where a couple lives with their children. In 2014, about 4% of these households were workless.

Across the country, the north-east has the highest percentage of workless households at 21%, while the south-east has the lowest at 12%.

Commenting on the figures, Geraint Johnes, director at Lancaster University’s Work Foundation, said: “As with other labour market statistics in recent months, the headline figures indicate a favourable trajectory [and] a continued reduction in the number of workless households would obviously be desirable.”

However, he added: “Equally, attention should be focused on the extent of engagement with the labour market. If people wish to supply their labour full-time, they should be supported to find full-time work. As far as possible, they should also be supported in maximising their potential, entering quality jobs that offer the prospect of a developing career.”

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said: “These record figures show that not only are we successfully helping people to escape worklessness and turn their lives around, but we are also giving hope to the next generation.”