Labour market Wage growth and distribution: can we be hopeful about the future? 7 November 2012 by Matthew Whittaker Look away from events in the US for a moment and you’ll find an interesting new release from the ONS highlighting trends in UK wage growth over the past 25 years. The headline points to average post-inflation hourly wage increases of 62 per cent since 1986, which looks fairly impressive and goes to the heart of our … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Where next for the living wage? Progress on low pay is imperative 4 November 2012 by Matthew Pennycook This post originally appeared on the New Statesman blog Tomorrow marks the start of the first Living Wage week. It is tangible proof that, 11 years after a small broad-based East London community alliance revived an idea first forged in the industrial heartlands of 1870s Britain, momentum for increased living wage coverage continues to gather pace. And … Continued READ MORE
Welfare What impact will extra childcare support have for working parents? 2 November 2012 by Alex Hurrell The final report of the Commission on Living Standards, a broad group of leading employers, trade unionists, economists and heads of parents’ groups brought together by the independent think-tank the Resolution Foundation, was launched on Wednesday. A key recommendation put forward in the report was to extend the Early Years Entitlement (EYE) of 15 free hours of childcare … Continued READ MORE
Welfare The politics of childcare are heating up. Here’s why 27 October 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog Often an issue only gets the attention it deserves due to a shift in the wider political context. And so it may be with our creaking childcare system. Despite unprecedented increases in public support – and major improvements – it’s still the case that during the Labour years childcare … Continued READ MORE
Living standards When a growing economy still feels bad 25 October 2012 by James Plunkett This post orginally appeared on Coffeehouse David Cameron was right; the good news has kept on coming. This morning’s first estimate from the ONS puts GDP growth in the third quarter at 1.0 percent. Cue much justified squabbling over what the ‘real’ number is. A significant portion of this growth will be a one-off, post-Jubilympics bounce-back, suggesting slower … Continued READ MORE
Welfare A falling reliance on state pensions? 24 October 2012 by Giselle Cory New data out from the ONS today gives an insight into the changing financial realities of the UK’s retired households. Stretching over 30 years from 1977 to 2010/11, the data paint a picture of rising pensioner income alongside a shift from state to private sources. Private income, such as that from private pensions, employment and … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Measuring unemployment: the claimant count gap 18 October 2012 by Matthew Whittaker A rare good news story from the ONS, with the latest labour market statistics bucking the trend for gloomy economic data. In June to August, unemployment fell to 2.53 million and the total number of people in employment (29.59 million) reached a new high. Yet, while the number of people out of work was down by 50,000, … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Give or take: who’s making a positive net tax contribution? 12 October 2012 by Alex Hurrell In recent days there has been a lot of discussion about net tax contribution, and in particular at what point in the income distribution households start to make a positive net contribution, i.e. pay in through taxes more than they receive in cash benefits. However, there are two issues of critical importance when considering net … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances George Osborne’s strivers have a shock in store 11 October 2012 by Gavin Kelly Beware politicians serving up easy distinctions to please and appease their party faithful. This week at the Conservative conference, the favoured divide was between “strivers and shirkers“, a refinement of one of the oldest tropes in politics – the deserving and undeserving poor. Devices like these generally work far better in the conference hall than they … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The impact of unemployment reaches beyond the out-of-work 4 October 2012 by Matthew Whittaker It’s a fairly obvious point that pay rises are connected to unemployment levels: the more people there are ready to step into work, the less scope employees have to push for higher wages. Of course the connection is not quite so straightforward in practice, and pay trends are affected by many more factors than unemployment … Continued READ MORE
Economy and public finances Spending more on less 27 September 2012 by Giselle Cory There has been a lot of discussion of inflation lately, as prices continue their upward march. The consumer trends data out today from ONS gives us an alternative way of looking at inflation. It shows that we are spending more and getting less on essentials like food, housing and transport. This is shown in the … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Dragging us all down 21 September 2012 by Matthew Whittaker This post originally appeared on Public Finance Unemployment is one of a number of factors keeping a lid on pay levels in both the public and private sectors With so little to cheer in the British economy in recent years, the steady fall in unemployment since the turn of the year has been seized on as … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Does the Treasury want to link benefits to earnings? 21 September 2012 by Giselle Cory Benefits used to be uprated using RPI, a measure of price inflation. This changed to CPI last year. This is also a measure of prices, but crucially it runs lower than RPI. This move generated savings for the Treasury. It has also had an impact on living standards. For the last few years the UK has … Continued READ MORE
Welfare Why it’s unlikely benefits increases will be linked to earnings 19 September 2012 by Gavin Kelly Gloomy projections all round. Following another Newsnight scoop, there must be debate in Westminster about whether the coalition are going to change their approach to uprating benefits – increasing them annually in line with inflation – for people of a working age. Coalition splits have already been predicted and then resolved before the pre-Autumn statement … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Looking under the lid of employment figures 12 September 2012 by Giselle Cory Employment has gone up and unemployment has gone down. This is good news. But it should not be taken at face value. A closer look at today’s data shows an increase in the number of people involuntarily working in part-time or temporary jobs. As the chart below shows, there has been a sustained rise in … Continued READ MORE
Labour market America’s working women 11 September 2012 by Giselle Cory This post originally appeared on Coffee House, The Spectator Blog We know that the growth of women in work has been a significant driver of household income growth in the UK over the last 50 years. In fact, children are now most likely to grow up in poverty in male breadwinner households. Today’s publication of the annual snapshot of … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Casting ahead to the 2015 election, no party leader likes what he sees 9 September 2012 by Gavin Kelly As the Westminster tempo cranks up, just as the marvel of the Olympic and Paralympic summer winds down, the main party leaders will be looking for ways of securing immediate momentum. Following his bumpy reshuffle David Cameron needs to demonstrate to an increasingly sceptical public that he hasn’t become the prisoner of a divided party and a fractious coalition. … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Working Families Risk Being Shut Out By Montague Row 23 August 2012 by Vidhya Alakeson This post originally appeared on The Spectator Today’s publication of the Montague Review into institutional investment in build to let addresses an important gap in our housing market. Large numbers of people, and a growing number of families, who would have bought homes in the past are now shut out of ownership for the medium to … Continued READ MORE
Living standards US election is a wake-up call for alarm clock Britain 8 August 2012 by Gavin Kelly It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!, the new zeitgeist book by grizzled Clinton-era advisers Stan Greenberg and James “Ragin’ Cajun” Carville isn’t your standard fare by former political insiders. It’s less a retrospective and more an argument about reversing the declining fortunes of middle America: not only should this be the defining issue of this year’s presidential election … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Young people’s wages: the numbers look scary… because they are scary 2 August 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog The economic plight of young people has been one of the recurring themes of recent years – most importantly the rise of youth unemployment which has topped one million and the steep rise of long-term youth unemployment. Yet for all the debate about the labour market position of … Continued READ MORE
Labour market We’re solving the pay gap – the wrong way 30 July 2012 by Gavin Kelly This post originally appeared on Gavin’s New Statesman blog One of the longest-running campaigns in modern British politics is that for equal pay. As many have pointed out it’s over 40 years since the Equal Pay Act yet the gender gap still persists. The good news is progress – even if it is all too slow – … Continued READ MORE
Living standards Coalition politics? It’s the art of the impossible 16 July 2012 by Gavin Kelly Last week’s failure on Lords reform has generated much frothy end-of-term speculation that this could be the issue that triggers the eventual downfall of the coalition. Which doesn’t tell you much, apart from the fact that many in Westminster clearly need a holiday. As Jackie Ashley pointed out in the Guardian on Sunday, neither David Cameron nor Nick Clegg … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Back to work? Not if you’re an older carer 12 July 2012 by Giselle Cory This blog originally appeared on Public Finance The government’s ambition to extend working lives is coming into direct conflict with the extra caring responsibilities imposed on middle-aged people Last night’s BBC One programme, The Town That Never Retired, sent 70-year-olds back to work. Some fell back in love with work, while others found themselves unable to do … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Up-skilling the middle 4 July 2012 by Anna Vignoles Successive governments have certainly placed skills policy at the heart of strategies to raise living standards and tackle low pay. Yet now there are growing doubts about whether upskilling workers will be enough to bring about genuine improvements in the living conditions of people currently on low to middle incomes (LMIs). In a new paper … Continued READ MORE
Labour market Why We Need to Take Another Look at Older Employment 15 June 2012 by Giselle Cory This blog originally appeared on the Huffington PostMore people are working for longer. One in eight people now work past their retirement age, up for one in 12 in 2000 according to new stats from ONS. This is good news. Working for longer is to be welcomed at a time when people are living longer, … Continued READ MORE
