The main workplace rights to be targeted for supporters of Leaving the EU at next month’s referendum are around working time (although protection against discrimination, fairness for agency workers and health and safety are also in the frame.) Leave campaigners claim that the Working Time Directive…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…
Asserting “Paid holidays will be safe after Brexit” fails “project reality” test
Yesterday we published figures showing that UK workers had gained 1.5 billion days more paid leave through our adoption of the EU minimum standard. Today I’ve been looking at some of the rather flimsy assertions made around our paid holiday rights by those who are keen to leave the European…Read more…
1.5 billion extra days paid holiday thanks to EU rights
UK workers have gained 96 million days paid holiday thanks to EU holiday rights (the Working Time Directive), totalling 1.5 million extra days paid leave since 1998. To look at it another way, 7.4 million UK employees, just over 1 in 4, have gained an average of 13 extra days paid holiday from our…Read more…
Employment is at record levels – so what’s the problem?
The employment rate at 74.1 per cent is at record levels, and the unemployment rate at 5.1 per cent has returned to pre-recession levels. These are strong employment figures, yet while the numbers are healthy there are still concerns about the quality …Read more…
Don’t tell young people that unemployment, low pay and insecure work are good for them
The way in which young workers (or want-to-be workers) is discussed in the media and public debate is something which frequently grates on me, and I can’t be the only young person who feels like this. The article “jobs for the boys and girls” in this week’s Economist was no…Read more…
TUC Economic Quarterly 8
This quarterly TUC report provides an analysis of UK economic and labour market developments over recent months. The growth rate of the UK economy slowed in 2015, following a more rapid expansion in 2014. This slowdown was common to a number of countri…Read more…
More likely to go to prison than university? But a degree doesn’t close the pay gap.
David Cameron’s front page of the Sunday Times announced a concerted Government anti-discrimination drive. Targeting universities, the police, the courts and the armed forces he said steps must be taken to tackle the ongoing discrimination that “should shame our country and jolt us to action”….Read more…
GDP, Inflation and Optimism Bias
January contains a number of key dates: New Year’s Day is obviously a big one, blue Monday – the day which some deeply dubious psychology has identified as the most depressing of the year; and it heralds the first release of the fourth quarter and thus calendar year GDP figures for the previous…Read more…
2016 is the year to end the two-speed economy
Decent wages and security for your family shouldn’t just be the preserve of those at the top of the tree, but should be on offer for everyone.
The post 2016 is the year to end the two-speed economy appeared first on ToUChstone blog.Read more…
Ceramic Valley may lose ceramic factories without support
In the Autumn Statement more Enterprise Zones were announced, including “Ceramic Valley” in the Stoke and Staffordshire LEP. For our members making construction product materials it should currently be a no-brainer to invest in extra manufacturing capacity, given: Cross-party agreement on the need…Read more…
East European Migrants and the Welfare State
A new report was published today that ought to have a massive impact on what the politicians say about migration. It’s called Social dimension of intra-EU mobility: Impact on public services and it looks at the impact in West European countries of migration from the ten new member states in…Read more…
Too many workers haven’t had a pay rise
More evidence has emerged about pay stagnation in the UK. Yesterday I noted that the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings showed that house prices had been going up twice as fast as earnings since the recession. Today I read an interesting presentation …Read more…
Pay and house prices
New figures show that house prices have been going up more than twice as fast as earnings since the recession. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings came out today. ASHE is the most important source of information about earnings and hours worked and we’re always interested in what it shows about…Read more…
Jobs or pay – we still haven’t got the hang of delivering on both
I have a post up at Left Foot Forward, looking at today’s labour market statistics. There’s some good news – though perhaps the first signs that self-employment is growing disproportionately again – but there’s also reasons to worry that pay rises are slowing down…Read more…
National Minimum Wage must not leave young people behind, says TUC
TUC young workers month is running for the whole of November.* One strand of this work is that the TUC has been campaigning for a higher minimum wage for workers aged up to 25, who are in danger of being left behind by government plans George Osbornes’ plans caused mixed feelings. The TUC was…Read more…
Introducing… Young Workers Month
November is the TUC Young Workers Month, a time to promote trade unions to young workers and to highlight the particular issues that they face. To kick off this month, here are some not-so-fun facts about the state of the labour market for young people…Read more…
Living Wage increase welcome – now pick up the pace
New Living Wage rates of £9.40 in London and £8.25 were announced this morning. just over 2,000 employers have signed up for this voluntary pay standard – double last year’s total. Accredited Living Wage employers have until April 2016 to put the new rates into effect. At a launch event…Read more…
New living wage figures show recovery not shared fairly
low wages are on the increase, the Office of National Statistics reported today. * The number of employees outside London paid below the living wage has risen by 2 percentage points since 2012, Reaching 23 per cent by 2014. The increase in London has been much sharper though, with the latest…Read more…
Tracking The Labour Market Recovery
Developing better economic and employment policies for the future depends critically on distinguishing between changes that are temporary and cyclical and those which are long term and structural. In a recent report for the TUC, Tracking the Labour Mar…Read more…