John Philpott
The latest official figures showing that the number of people working in the UK private sector jumped by more than half a million in the year to March is clearly welcome. Admittedly the good news is tempered by the loss of well over 100,000 public sector jobs during the same period. But the overall rise in employment is nonetheless remarkable for an economy experiencing a fragile recovery from a harrowing recession and starting to feel the impact of unprecedented fiscal austerity.
This poses something of a conundrum. We’re familiar with the phenomenon of jobless growth – as characterised by the ongoing recovery in the United States – but the UK economy is at present demonstrating the polar opposite by creating jobs without growth. How can this be?
