25% of Torbay households 'have no-one in work'
About 25% of households which have people of working age in Torbay had no adults working in 2010, according to government figures.
Of about 63,000 households in the bay, some 20,000 households are occupied by people who are retired.
In the remaining 43,000 with people of working age - between 16 and 64 - about 10,800 had no-one in work.
Critics said more economic development was needed. Torbay's mayor said such work was under way.
Labour councillor and GMB union member Darren Cowell said the statistics - from an Office of National Statistics survey looking at economic activity status - were "not good news".
"I've been urging the mayor to make economic development a top priority," he said.
He welcomed a forum set up in December to help tackle the situation, but added it could take years for any results from it.
"We need to be doing more immediately," he said.
Torbay Mayor Gordon Oliver, who leads the Conservative-run Torbay Council, said the authority was "doing a tremendous amount of work to get this problem resolved".
He said: "What we have to do is get the private sector to take up the slack, and that's what we're trying to do.
"We're encouraging investment, as well as meeting with other councils and banks."