THE UK has one of the highest levels of inactivity among people of working age, despite record low levels of unemployment, a survey has found.

More than twice as many people want a job, but are out of work, than show up in the official unemployment statistics, the TUC said.

The union organisation blamed the "damaging" economic and labour market policies of the 1980s and 1990s for the UK having one of the highest levels of inactivity among working age people in Europe, at about two million.

Twenty per cent of inactive people in the UK wanted a job, compared with a European average of ten per cent

The TUC praised the Government for reducing levels of inactivity and increasing employment among groups such as lone parents.

But its research showed that the employment rate had fallen among people without qualifications since Labour came to power in 1997, and little impression had been made on the large numbers of older workers with sickness or disability who wanted a job.

The TUC called on the Government to invest more in schemes to help the disabled, lone parents and those without qualifications.

General secretary Brendan Barber said: "The job market in the UK is quickly tightening. The government has reversed the dive in employment, but now has an economic imperative to get a grip on the massive level of inactivity caused by the policies of their predecessors.

"The two million excluded want to work, and targeted investment starting in 2004 could get them into the workforce as soon as possible to help drive UK economic growth."