Coming of age during a downturn can cause scarring – and it takes up to a decade to heal

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Recessions are bad for people’s standard of living. And they’re particularly bad for young people. That’s the painful lesson we learnt after the 1980s recession where, for most of that decade, at least one in seven people under 30 were unemployed. We know a lot about the unemployment scarring of the 1980s – from the … Continued

To build, or not to build: that is the question

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They say a week is a long time in politics (at the moment a day can feel like a long time). The same isn’t often true about economics. Arguably the most important forces in economics are long-running; demographics, big infrastructure projects, technological change. Things that don’t happen overnight. Therefore this blog – the latest in … Continued

MAC to the future

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This morning the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) released the final report in its year-long (plus) investigation into EU migration. The report is arguably the most comprehensive assessment of how migration has affected the UK over the past two decades, dealing with topics as diverse as the labour market, housing, public finances and subjective wellbeing. In … Continued

Full employment: we’re half way there

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In early 2014 the then Chancellor, George Osborne committed to ‘fight for full employment’. At the time the employment rate (for those aged 16 – 64) was 72.9 per cent and the unemployment rate (for those over 16) 6.4 per cent. The Chancellor didn’t commit to a specific figure, but his goal was to have … Continued

Employers are offering a growing ‘disloyalty bonus’ – young people should take advantage

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This piece was first published on i.  First they took away the long-service awards: carriage clocks and gold watches; now they’re coming for your pay rises; loyalty no longer pays in UK firms. That’s the big takeaway from new Resolution Foundation research looking at what’s happening in the jobs market. In the late 1990s if … Continued

Poor productivity and high housing costs are driving a ‘living standards exodus’ from London

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As a Londoner it’s fair to say that as a city we’re quite good at giving ourselves a pat on the back (though apparently self-loathing Londoners are a thing too). It’s often suggested that London is an economic powerhouse, productive, innovative and leaving the rest of the country in its wake. However new research by … Continued

Three tips on how to get a pay rise

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How do you get a pay rise? This is a question most of us would like to know the answer to. Especially seeing as, following the financial crisis, we’ve experienced the worst squeeze on wages in over a hundred years. Typical weekly earnings are £15 lower than they were in 2009, and by 2020 we … Continued

Matthew Whittaker

Now’s not the time for auto-pilot

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Straightforward policy successes are a rare achievement in government and need celebrating when they arrive, lest we forget that policy matters. The recent sizeable gains the UK has made on private pension saving as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment are therefore a clear cause for cheer. But challenges remain, starting with the increase … Continued

Not quite pay growth party-time yet

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Today the ONS published the latest pay growth figures covering the year to January. These, along with yesterday’s inflation data, suggest that the squeeze which has dragged down real pay for twelve months is finally over. However, at the risk of sounding Eeyore-ish, pay growth is likely to remain subdued for the rest of the … Continued

When it comes to pay ratios, it’s time to choose meaningful medians not meaningless means

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Back in the dog days of last summer, the Government announced a package of reforms to corporate governance. Among those reforms was the welcome requirement for “listed companies… to publish pay ratios between chief executives and their average UK worker”. On the back of gender pay gap reporting and the commitment to transparency expressed in … Continued

Hey big spender!

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Todays’ annual Family Spending release contains the usual treasure trove of information on what UK households spent their money on last year. Households spent a lot. Average weekly spending rose (after adjusting for inflation) by 4 per cent from £533 to £554 between 2015-16 and 2016-17 – the sharpest increase for well over a decade … Continued

Should I stay or should I go now?

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Yesterday it emerged that the Home Office incorrectly sent around 100 deportation letters to EU citizens. Although the government has apologised, it would appear from today’s immigration statistics that many EU nationals are doing the Home Office’s job for them. Net migration (immigration minus emigration) fell to 246,000 in the year to March 2017, the … Continued

Graduates and the young are spearheading a decline in regional mobility

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It is often assumed that the millennial generation (broadly speaking those born in the 1980s and 1990s) spend all their money on holidays, avocado toast and iPhones, and are all cultivating ‘portfolio careers’ disdainful of the notion of a job for life. Like most stereotypes there is perhaps some truth in this. People are travelling … Continued

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