Weight-loss surgery reduces worklessness, data from the Office for National Statistics has suggested.
It found patients who underwent bariatric surgery, which shrinks the stomach so that people do not want to eat as much, became more employable in the five years after the procedure.
Researchers recorded the former patients’ employment rates every six months for five years and found it increased every time.
Their probability of being employed jumped by 1.5 percentage points in the six to 12 months after surgery, and a further 2.5 percentage points between one year and 18 months.
Between 18 months and five years, it increased by between 3.1 percentage points and 4.3 percentage points for every six-month block.
It comes as the Government hailed weight-loss jabs as a tool to tackle unemployment.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, announced a five-year trial to assess the “real-world effectiveness” of the jab Mounjaro – also known as tirzepatide – including its impact on worklessness.
Obese people are more likely to suffer from other conditions such as heart disease, which can lead to higher rates of long-term sickness and sick days.
The ONS study into 40,000 Britons that had received bariatric surgery between 2014 and 2022 found people were also likely to earn more money after surgery.
It discovered men in paid employment who had undergone the procedure earned £200 per month more on average five years after the operation, while women earned £55 a month more.
Bariatric surgery consists of a variety of potential procedures, including gastric sleeves, gastric bypass or gastric band procedures, but not liposuction.
They work by altering the shape of the stomach either by cutting sections of the organ away or tightening it with an artificial material, which results in the stomach becoming smaller and a person feeling fuller sooner.
It is only available on the NHS for the severely obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher.
It is offered privately for others at a cost of around £15,000, but increasing numbers of Britons have been travelling abroad to countries such as Turkey for the surgery.
In an attempt to tackle the obesity epidemic, ministers have recently announced plans to ban junk food adverts before 9pm on TV, and entirely online, and to stop multi-buy deals on unhealthy foods.
They have also promised a “prevention revolution” to overhaul lifestyles, with Sir Keir Starmer saying that “changes won’t be universally popular”.
Excess weight is linked to a host of deadly health conditions, including heart disease, cancer and type-two diabetes. About 40 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on preventable health conditions, a figure forecast to reach 60 per cent by 2040.
Last month, forecasts suggested the number of workers on long-term sick leave would increase by more than 50 per cent in five years.
The new weight-loss injection trial in Greater Manchester will examine whether about 3,000 people benefit from being put on the jabs. It will assess their workplace absence levels, the likelihood of being in work and the amount of dependence on NHS services, compared to the wider population.
The study, by Health Innovation Manchester and Lilly, forms part of a collaboration between the Government and the pharmaceutical giant. Other strands will include new ways of rolling out obesity treatment, such as offering digital coaching, and the opening of new labs to boost the life sciences sector.
Figures suggest obesity currently costs £3.2 billion to the economy of Greater Manchester, about half of which relates to productivity losses.
