Inactive sort of party needing new worker (8)
I believe the answer is:
stagnant
'inactive' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sort of party needing new worker' is the wordplay.
'sort of party' becomes 'stag' (I've seen this before**).
'needing' says to put letters next to each other.
'new' becomes 'n'.
'worker' becomes 'ant' (worker is a type of ant).
'stag'+'n'+'ant'='STAGNANT'
(Other definitions for stagnant that I've seen before include "Standing still" , "(Water) not flowing" , "hardly moving" , "Showing little activity" , "Not circulating or flowing" .)