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Nearly half a million (464,225) more people were off work due to long-term sickness in the three months from April to June, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
About 2.5 million people were already off due to sickness before the quarter.
It came as NHS England data showed 7.6 million people were waiting to start routine hospital treatment at the end of June, the highest number since records began in August 2007.
These people are classed as economically inactive, rather than unemployed, because they are neither in work nor looking for work.
While the number is another record high, the overall rate of economic inactivity fell to 20.9% of the working-age population, the ONS said. It is down from 21% from the previous three months but still up 0.7 percentage points since before the COVID pandemic.
Among those unable to work full-time due to illness is Liz Evans, who suffers from pancreatitis.
She told Sky News: "There's a lot of reasons why I'm finding it difficult to actually be able to be full-time, because I need to have so many adjustments made to actually allow me to go into a workforce.
"I think it's very difficult for anybody with a long-term disability, regardless of what it is, to actually be understood fully and accepted fully in the workforce."
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Records in the number of long-term sick people had been reached in the three months up to April, March, February and January this year.
The decrease in economic inactivity during the latest three-month period was driven by those aged 50 to 64 looking for work and a fall in the number of people looking after family at home.
Large numbers of people moved from economic inactivity into unemployment, the ONS said. There was a net flow of 200,00 from economic inactivity to unemployment while 103,000 people moved from employment into economic inactivity.