Review of Securing a pay rise: the path back to shared wage growth, Edited by Gavin Kelly and Conor D’Arcy, The Resolution Foundation This collection of essays is a very valuable overview of progressive opinion on the earnings crisis, a must read for those engaged in any aspects of the debate. Some…Read more…
Infrastructure spending: BBC and now FT coming out in favour – the politicians from the 3 main parties next?
The TUC has long championed increases in infrastructure spending, but the government has instead cut severely this vital expenditure. In an editorial in the weekend edition, the Financial Times took a big step in our direction. The shifting view was se…Read more…
Conservative tax plans help the wealthiest most – but there is a fairer way
At the Conservative party conference last year David Cameron announced that a future Conservative government would seek to introduce two separate income tax cuts: an above inflation increase in the personal allowance and a rise in the higher rate thres…Read more…
Today’s labour market statistics: working people are still paying the price for austerity
Many have argued that employment gains somehow compensate for earnings losses, but this is false. My post on today’s labour market statistics is up at Left Foot Forward.
The post Today’s labour market statistics: working people are still paying the price for austerity appeared first…Read more…
REC/KPMG ‘report on jobs’ shows anticipated pay growth in 2015 of just 1%
As befits the seeming ‘good-economic-news-only’ environment in the run up to the election, last Friday’s REC (The Recruitment & Employment Confederation) report on jobs was issued under the banner: “Stronger growth of staff placements in February” But in the last section of the…Read more…
Zero inflation and still reducing core inflation. To repeat: deflationary pressures are not just about fuel
For once CPI inflation was in line with market expectations, remaining at zero per cent for the second month in a row. But this unchanged reading simply followed because fuel prices were not as low in March as they were in February, falling by -13.7 per cent on the year rather than -16.6 per…Read more…
Construction and production output suggest a slower start to 2015
Today’s production and construction figures continue to suggest a loss of momentum into 2015. While manufacturing was up 0.4 per cent on the month, this did not fully compensate for a fall of -0.6 per cent in January; the more stable three month on three month change shows growth of only 0.1 per…Read more…
Surprise, surprise – we don’t spend so much when there’s a living standards crisis
Really, this is one of those “one chart says it all” stories: Here at the TUC we started worrying about the living standards crisis years ago – and there’s a long way to go before we can say it’s over. But the crisis isn’t just about wages, pensions and other…Read more…
Labour market deregulation: When the facts change…
The famous remark, commonly attributed to Keynes, that “when the facts change, I change my mind…” could be about to face a stern test. The IMF is about to publish the findings of research by staff members that finds no evidence that labour market deregulation promotes growth. This…Read more…
Labour’s Manifesto For Britain’s Workplaces
Here is an edited version of Labour’s ‘A Better Plan For Britain’s Workplaces’, produced by Unite. The central task for the next Labour government is to build an economy that creates better and more…Read more…
What Is Productivity?
CLASS Briefing: Productivity There has been increasing media coverage about the UK’s growing ‘productivity gap’ in the last few weeks, but why is it important? The shaky and unsustainable return to…Read more…
Figures for 2014 change nothing: weak productivity is still caused by austerity
As many argued in the wake of the Budget, productivity outcomes remain a significant concern and major blot on the government’s economic record. Today ONS issued the first figures for 2014 as a whole, showing growth at only 0.5 per cent, up only marginally on 0.4 per cent in 2013 (left chart); they…Read more…
The curious case of yesterday’s living standards ‘good news’
Right from the off yesterday, ONS statistics triggered a celebration of rising living standards. Yet you were hard pushed to find exactly the reason for that celebration. In the newly-issued National Accounts, real household disposable income per head …Read more…
Paying up: who’s been getting pay rises, who hasn’t, and will that change?
Guest post written by Laura Gardiner of LSE and Abigail McKnight of the Resolution Foundation. Britain’s wage squeeze has been well documented. But the public narrative on pay trends has recently suffered from some confusing – and at times highly inaccurate – claims in relation to pay rises for…Read more…
Stats watchdog confirms that 4.1% does NOT “typically represent” pay rises
The UK Statistics Authority has now responded to TUC analysis on earnings estimates for those in continuous employment. We argued that newly calculated figures showing annual earnings growth of 2.3% for those in continuous employment (in their March Ec…Read more…
UK inflation at zero and rate has been falling faster than in eurozone
Inflation fell to zero in February 2014; down from 0.3 per cent in January. Once more the figure came in lower than expectations, on this occasion for 0.1 per cent (including the Bank of England in their latest Inflation Report). CPI records only began in 1989, but ONS projections show figures…Read more…
History & Policy Group – Whatever Happened To Collective Bargaining?
UK Must Become Modern Manufacturing Economy Says TUC
The employers body Confederation of British Industry has set out its proposals for the first hundred days of the new Government – and it doesn’t make comfortable reading for the Tories. The…Read more…
Sajid Javid on Question Time: yet more labour market spin
Last night’s BBC Question Time (20 minutes into the iPlayer recording) featured Sajid Javid MP, a member of Cameron’s cabinet, defiantly claim that 80% of the jobs created in the past 5 years have been both full time and high-skilled in response to an audience member who was rightly concerned about…Read more…
Unite Analysis Of Osborne’s Last Budget
By the Unite Political Department To call George Osborne’s performance, hopefully for the last time, at the Commons’ despatch box a budget for the nation is stretching credulity to its limits. With…Read more…