When supporters of tougher immigration controls are asked what system they would introduce, they often point to Australia’s points-based system. I often get the feeling that this is as much an appeal to old Commonwealth ties as much as a rational answer to the question, with potentially…Read more…
#ISDS: Government position shows ideology trumps evidence
We’re often told that Governments are committed to ‘evidence-based policy making’, although it often seems that it’s the other way round. Now we see, starkly revealed, how far the UK government’s trade policy is based far more on ideology than evidence. A Freedom of…Read more…
NIESR report shows need to end race to the bottom on jobs
A report released this week by NIESR identifies low pay and precarious contracts as one of the key reason more local workers do not take up jobs in the hospitality, food processing and construction sectors leading employers in these sectors to draw on migrant workers from other EU countries, who…Read more…
Union campaign scores a win with big changes made to #TUbill
It’s been a difficult 10 months since the Government introduced the Trade Union Bill. The co-ordinated campaign against these damaging proposals has taken a huge effort from across the union movement. But the bill that passed the Commons today was hugely reduced from what the government had…Read more…
Now OECD adds its concerns about the risks of #Brexit
This morning the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gave its assessment of the impact of Brexit on the UK. The economic consequences of Brexit: a taxing decision adds the Paris-based club of rich democracies to the list of in…Read more…
GDP figures: unsurprising underperformance
GDP Headlines: With statistics released today showing that GDP increased by a paltry 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, evidence suggests that a strong and secure economy is still a long way off. This fall from the 0.6 per cent growth in the fo…Read more…
Many graduates still get little return on their investment, particularly if they’re BAME.
Graduate employment statistics released today indicate that in 2015 the percentage of graduates in high-skill (i.e. graduate) employment was only 66.2 per cent, meaning just over a third of graduates were in non-graduate positions. Frances O’Grady commented: “There are simply not enough quality…Read more…
UK must stop blocking EU taking action against China steel dumping
The fallacy of Brexit campaigners claim that the EU is preventing the UK from taking action against China dumping cheap steel has been exposed with the government’s announcement today that its plans to part-nationalise the steel industry would be compatible with EU state aid rules. As the TUC…Read more…
Clinton & Sanders show the way on ‘trade’ agreements
While the current Democratic President of the USA, Barack Obama, tours Europe to raise support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the two candidates scrapping to be his successor back home are setting out markedly different …Read more…
New Immigration Bill clauses could give workers whistle to blow on abusive employers
On Monday the Immigration Bill will return to the House of Commons. In the House of Lords amendments have been added to give rights and protections to asylum seekers and overseas domestic workers which provide an important counterbalance to the nasty t…Read more…
The FT’s Tim Harford not Labour is misrepresenting the earnings crisis
Since the financial crisis, it is beyond doubt that wages and incomes have been exceptionally weak. Yet in the weekend Financial Times, the Labour Party’s use of real earnings figures was heavily criticised by Tim Harford (here). In the company of Donald Trump’s use of crime statistics and Jeremy…Read more…
Why Sajid Javid is right – and the Adam Smith Institute is wrong – on support for steel
Earlier today, the UK and Welsh Governments announced a financial support package worth hundreds of millions of pounds, on commercial terms, to ensure a new buyer comes forward for Tata Steel. A main part, perhaps all, of the support will be in the for…Read more…
Don’t overdo the rise in unemployment, but labour market gains have clearly moderated
The focus of the coverage of the labour market statistics today is on a small rise in the unemployment figures (+21K, with unemployment rate unchanged at 5.1%). Perhaps commentators are on the lookout for the negative given wider conditions in financia…Read more…
The National Living Wage: a defence
This morning’s labour market release told a similar story to what we’ve seen previously: insipid wage growth and slowly rising employment. Yet some commentators have assigned a special weight to today’s figures, take this piece in the Evening Standard on Monday for example. This is because that…Read more…
Trade Union Bill takes a battering in the Lords: What’s next in #TUbill campaign?
We’re nearing the end of the parliamentary process of the controversial Trade Union Bill. It has been a bruising experience for the government, lasting longer than they had hoped, and with a successions of embarrassments, defeats and concessions along the way. Much is still up for grabs, but…Read more…
A quick note on Leave.EU’s creative accounting
The Chancellor’s statement yesterday, on the costs of Brexit has provoked some creative accounting from the Brexit campaign. Their response is built on two highly questionable statistics combined with a statement of such devil-may-care chutzpah that it seems almost heroic. Let’s take their most…Read more…
Owning the future: Public services for the 21st century
While attention is focussed on the growing financial crisis in the NHS, along comes another privatisation shambles to remind us all that the government’s funding squeeze is not the only threat to the future of our health service. The performance of non-emergency transport services since Coperforma…Read more…
NHS Brexit bonanza fails to convince
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been hitting the Brexit campaign trail to claim that quitting the EU would free up the £350m a week they say we spend on the EU to give instead to the NHS. It’s hard to know which end of this one to doubt first. The BBC’s face checkers were…
The post NHS…Read more…
BAME workers with all levels of qualifications still face high unemployment
When you are young there is an expectation that if you gain higher educational qualifications it will lead to a decent job and higher wages but this is not always the case, especially when you are a Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young worker….Read more…
Black, qualified and unemployed: how the figures were found
Today the TUC released analysis showing that for each level of education, BAME adults are significantly more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts. In this post, I hope to provide a technical discussion about how these figures were calculated. For an important discussion of the…Read more…