One image from the TV coverage of George Osborne’s July Budget sticks in my mind. It hasn’t got anything to do with the Chancellor’s smirk as he announced the “National Living Wage” – it’s the cut-away shot to Iain Duncan Smith fist-pumping in apparent triumph. I was surprised – in the same speech Mr Osborne…
No. In fact, the latest figures suggest they’ve never been so uncommon. Being able to withdraw your labour is an essential human right, which is why Conservative ministers are usually careful to deny that the Trade Union Bill is an attack on the right to strike. But some of the Bill’s supporters are not very…
This is one of those ‘one chart says it all’ posts. Yesterday I was too busy looking at the regular labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics to notice they’d also published a Supplementary Analysis of Average Weekly Earnings. It’s well worth a read, and this chart is taken from page 2. The…
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s monthly employment statistics (it’s an exciting life at the TUC) and I’ve been thinking about the employment and unemployment gaps between men and women. In some respects, the convergence of men’s and women’s employment opportunities that we’ve got used to over a generation or more may have slowed to a…
The government can’t be accused of pussy-footing about. In this Parliament we’ve already had the most radical Budget for 20 years, an attack on trade unions that out-Tebbits Norman Tebbit and cuts to tax credits that will force thousands of low-paid workers and their children into poverty. And, with the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, we…
Women Want Work is a new TUC briefing that argues that the official unemployment figures under-state the jobs shortage; in particular they minimise the number of women who aren’t in employment but ideally would like a paid job. This is because of the way unemployment is defined for the monthly labour market statistics. According to these…
I have a post at Left Foot Forward looking at today’s labour market figures. I argue that it’s important not to read too much into one month’s figures, but it is worrying if this country can achieve decent jobs growth or adequate earnings but never both.
Massive and unfair cuts in tax credits and benefits are going to hit low-paid workers. Can the Chancellor hope to justify his claim that this is a “one nation Budget”? The key to any Budget is how it answers the question who gains and who loses? The big picture is explained well in the latest…
You know you’re a nerd when you’ve got a favourite statistic, but you only know you’re a full geek when you can’t stop telling people about it. I’ve really got to write about The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, even though it came out last week. I was away on the 29th…
This week two announcements will be designed to set the government’s course for the next five years. It looks as though the definition of poverty and how it can be eliminated will be at the heart of this undertaking. On Saturday the TUC and the Child Poverty Action Group published a new report which provides…