Jobs· Job quality and security Introducing the Workertech Partnership Backing a new wave of innovators who will harness technology to improve the prospects, power and choices of workers 10 November 2020 by Louise Marston The world of work was already changing rapidly before the crisis, with rising use of automation and increasing levels of insecure work. Coronavirus has highlighted how exposed many people are to changes in hours, lack of health and safety protections, and how few opportunities there are for flexible employment that works for families. The coronavirus … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Jobs· Labour market The Chancellor has prevented a grim winter of redundancies – but has failed to fix the faults with his jobs support package 6 November 2020 by Mike Brewer On Thursday, Rishi Sunak announced that the Job Retention Scheme – where employees can be put on furlough and still get 80 per cent of their wages covered by the government – will continue to the end of March. Self-employed workers can get another three-month grant of 80 per cent of their pre-crisis profits. There … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Labour market Millions of furloughed workers have returned to work – but support for hard-hit sectors will be needed beyond October Analysing the HMRC Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme data 21 August 2020 by Nye Cominetti This morning, HMRC published its latest round of statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS). For the first time, we have a time series of the number of furloughed workers, as opposed to the cumulative total, meaning we can see how use of the scheme has evolved since the start of April. Here are … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Labour market Any further questions? From 'The Full Monty: Facing up to the scale of the COVID-19 jobs crisis' 29 June 2020 by Hannah Slaughter We often have more questions submitted for our event Q&A sessions than we’re able to answer. Where this is the case, we’ll endeavour to respond to a selection of the most interesting or most representative questions that went unanswered. The questions below were submitted to our panel for the event The Full Monty: Facing up … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Labour market Three big decisions for the Chancellor on the future of the Job Retention Scheme 28 May 2020 by Daniel Tomlinson The Chancellor will be announcing details for ‘Phase 2’ of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (JRS) later today or tomorrow. With 8.4 million jobs furloughed – one-third of all private sector employees – any changes to the JRS will have a big impact both on the scale of the unemployment crisis and on the speed … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Labour market Five things we’ve learned from today’s labour market data 19 May 2020 by Hannah Slaughter and Nye Cominetti This morning the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the first major set of labour market data that covers the lockdown period, with data from April on vacancies, claimant unemployment, and employee jobs. Of course, the scale of the crisis has been clear for some time in other data – including Universal Credit claims and … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Skills· Apprenticeships Any further questions? From the event 'The corona class of 2020: How to support young people leaving education amid the crisis' 12 May 2020 by Kathleen Henehan We often have more questions submitted for our event Q&A sessions than we’re able to answer. Where this is the case, we’ll endeavour to respond to a selection of the most interesting or most representative questions that went unanswered. The questions below were submitted to our panel for the event The corona class of 2020: … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Jobs· Labour market Unprecedented support for employees’ wages last week has been followed up by equally significant, and even more generous, support for the self-employed. But gaps remain 27 March 2020 by Torsten Bell and Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner and Karl Handscomb and Daniel Tomlinson Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that last week’s pledge to underwrite 80 per cent of the wages of employees without work to do during this crisis is being matched with significant grants to the self-employed. This is an important addition to existing plans to support employees, and in many ways a more generous offer. The Self-Employed … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Living standards· Incomes· Jobs· Labour market· Welfare Key take-aways from the Chancellor’s package of measures to support workers in the coronavirus crisis 22 March 2020 by Mike Brewer and Laura Gardiner The Chancellor’s announcements on Friday 20 March were unprecedented in their scale and reach, and absolutely vital for supporting firms and family incomes in the face of the current crisis. Here are five key take-aways on how these changes will affect families, and three next steps for the Government to consider. 1. At a … Continued READ MORE
Skills· Apprenticeships Is the government’s apprenticeships strategy set to change? Changing policy context could prove welcome if it means focusing Levy funds on the people that really need Apprenticeships 2 March 2020 by Kathleen Henehan While the latest data on apprenticeship starts don’t show much change on previous months – down on recent years, with the number going to older apprentices at higher levels of study is up – the backdrop to apprenticeships has changed. For a start, we have a new Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, who … Continued READ MORE
Zero-hour contracts· Labour market· Pay A record-breaking labour market – but not all records are welcome 18 February 2020 by Nye Cominetti This morning’s labour market statistics broke records left and right. Mostly this was good news, with a new high on the employment rate and a (belated) return to peak pay. But as Linford Christie famously said, if you want to be a record breaker … it’s a good idea to look at the full range … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills· Apprenticeships The new government needs to focus on the alarming fall in apprenticeship starts 3 February 2020 by Kathleen Henehan With a new year, a new-ish government and the country soon to (officially) exit the European Union, there’s hope that policy makers will renew their focus on domestic concerns. And given the figures published today (Thursday) showing an alarming fall in apprenticeship starts – a greater focus on this issue would be a good place … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Pay 2019 has been a good year for employment and earnings 17 December 2019 by Nye Cominetti New ONS data out today – the last of 2019 – shows that we’ve approached the end of the year with the labour market in, to coin a phrase, a strong and stable position. Strong because employment remains at record levels – hitting a new high in the three months to October of 76.2 per … Continued READ MORE
Living standards· Incomes· Jobs· Labour market· Pay· Inequality & poverty· Cities and regions· Political parties and elections Election 2019: how Britain’s North-South divide is changing Closing the divide once and for all is a challenge all political parties say they want to embrace 6 December 2019 by Charlie McCurdy The North-South divide is a theme often used by – and against – politicians to highlight inequality in the UK, and election time is no exception. But this divide has evolved over time, and is by no means the only geographical divide in the country. The big economic divide Productivity – or how efficiently … Continued READ MORE
Skills· Apprenticeships· Political parties and elections Apprenticeships and adult education: how do the major parties compare? Latest Department for Education figures show the problems that need addressing 1 December 2019 by Kathleen Henehan While big rows over Brexit and the size of state we want have tended to dominate the news cycle over recent weeks, the 2019 general election campaign hasn’t been entirely devoid of skills policy. In fact, the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Party manifestos all include bold – albeit thinly detailed – proposals on apprenticeships … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Jobs· Labour market· Low pay· Pay Feel poor, work more – the real reason behind Britain’s record employment 13 November 2019 by Torsten Bell Why are three million more of us working today than were back in 2008? How has our employment rate reached 76 per cent, when full employment before the crisis meant 73 per cent of us working? These are employment levels no-one thought possible a decade ago. There is almost no bigger change to our economy … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Pay Election 2019: What jobs do UK workers actually do? 12 November 2019 by Laura Gardiner The UK is gearing up for another election, which means politicians of all parties fighting for the votes of what they call ‘ordinary’ or ‘hard-working’ people. There are record numbers of people in work in the UK. So, what jobs do we do in Britain, how have they changed in recent years, and what might … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Low pay· Minimum wage· Living Wage The evidence backing a higher minimum wage is growing 4 November 2019 by Nye Cominetti You wait for a minimum wage report and then three come along at once. This morning the Treasury published Arin Dube’s keenly awaited review of minimum wage policy in the UK. Dube backs the Chancellor’s ambitions to raise the rate to two-thirds of median hourly pay, but offers useful honesty about the risks involved, as … Continued READ MORE
Labour market The flaws of the UK labour market won’t solve themselves Time to learn from other Anglo-Saxon economies 29 October 2019 Sinner or saint? The UK labour market is lauded for reaching record levels of employment at the same time as it is lacerated for the insecurities that are said to be its central feature. Two things can, however, be true at once: an economy can be job-rich at the same time as too many of … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Pay Has the labour market reached a turning point? 15 October 2019 by Nye Cominetti On headline measures the labour market remains healthy. Conditions are tight and this continues to feed into decent real pay growth – 2.0 per cent in the three months to August 2019, not far off the levels we came to expect before the recession. But alongside positive headlines are signs that the labour market is … Continued READ MORE
Skills· Apprenticeships Are higher-level apprenticeships going to better-off apprentices? What the new Department of Education statistics tell us 12 October 2019 by Kathleen Henehan This morning the Department for Education (DfE) published figures on the number of apprenticeships that were started in July 2019 – the final month of the 2018/19 academic year. And although the numbers are still provisional, they provide us with a pretty clear picture of how things shaped up for the apprenticeships sector. The big … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Pay The labour market is delivering on jobs and pay – it is vital for living standards that we keep it that way 10 September 2019 by Nye Cominetti A tight labour market is finally delivering decent pay growth. In the three months to July 2019, average weekly regular pay (i.e. excluding bonuses) grew by 1.9 per cent on the previous year (slightly down on the previous month). Given that average real pay grew by 2.1 per cent in the eight years prior to … Continued READ MORE
Labour market· Skills· Apprenticeships What do the latest apprenticeship figures tell us? 2 September 2019 by Kathleen Henehan and Jubair Ahmed This August, as always, brought a host of headlines on academic results: from A level triumphs to parents’ confusion with the new(ish) GCSE marking system. Rather less attention, as always, was paid to students who pursued qualifications and pathways outside the traditional GCSE-to-A level-to-university route. For instance, apprenticeships, where young people can – in theory … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Job quality and security· Low pay· Pay· Minimum wage Is the minimum wage pushing people into self-employment? 29 July 2019 by Nye Cominetti Two big changes in the labour market over the past two decades have been the rise in self-employment and the introduction and uprating of the minimum wage. Is there a connection between these trends? Legally, of course, there is no connection – the minimum wage applies to employees only. But economically, we would expect one. … Continued READ MORE
Jobs· Labour market· Pay· Intergenerational Centre It’s getting better all the time? 5 July 2019 by Stephen Clarke In 1957 the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the country that it had “never had it so good”. Since then more than six decades have elapsed, and each successive generation has debated whether this applies to them. Such debates continue to rage. Some commentators have argued that today’s young people are more fortunate than previous … Continued READ MORE
