Good news on jobs could be threatened by cuts
Good news on jobs could be threatened by cuts, a new report from KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation; but will the private sector fill the void?
Richard Exell
Website Richard writes for Left Foot Forward on labour markets; he is the TUC’s senior policy officer, covering social security, tax credits and labour market issues - including the debates about the European social model and labour market flexibility.
OBR: Recovery “at a slower pace” than in the 70s, 80s and 90s
Tomorrow’s papers will probably note the forecast that, by 2015, public sector employment will fall by 330,000, one hundred and sixty thousand less than the 490,000 forecast in June. 30,000 of the difference is down to “methodological refinements”. The remaining 130,000 reduction is because the Spending Review cut more from social security and less from Departmental budgets than OBR expected – a different balance of misery, rather than a genuine improvement.
What kind of jobs recovery is going on?
There is some good news in today’s labour market statistics. There were 2,448,000 people unemployed in the three months from July to September, down 9,000 on the figures for April to June. The number of people in employment was up 167,000 from April-June, reaching 29,189,000.
Recovery was fragile before Coalition’s cuts began to undermine confidence
There are warning signs in today’s unemployment stats that the recovery was fragile even before the coalition’s enthusiasm for cuts started choking confidence.
Will the Labour market take a turn for the worse this week?
This week we should find out whether the labour market has taken the turn for the worse that many economists have been expecting for some time.
Some genuine good news from today’s employment stats
Today’s labour market statistics reveal an employment recovery that is picking up, but remains very weak – though there is some genuine good news in today’s results.
Child benefit cuts will result in a worse deal for the poor
Today’s Guardian reports that the new Lib Dem/Tory Chancellor George Osborne has made plans to cut spending on child benefit by ‘targeting’ the benefit.
Lib Dems set to support regressive Tory VAT increase
A BBC survey of economists reports that they expect value added tax to rise from 17.5 to 20 per cent.
The Express is wrong: Half of all new jobs have gone to UK citizens
Contrary to the Express’s claims that 98% of new jobs go to “foreigners”, 50.3% of the jobs created since 1997 have been taken by Britons – 1,375,000 positions.