As published in the www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk and www.dissexpress.co.uk on Thursday, May 9, 2019
32.7 million.
Remember that figure. It’s a big one and it’s a record one.
According to the latest Office for National Statistics 32.7 million people in the UK are in employment or self-employment. This is the highest number since 1971, when records of this type were first published, and means that over 76% of the adult population are economically active.
In the last year alone, the UK economy has added 457,000 jobs. And before anyone objects by saying that these are all part-time roles, the data shows that full-time employment and self-employment is up, whilst part-time roles are actually down.
Unemployment continues its long-term decline and for the three months to February 2019, it fell to 1.34m. The current rate of unemployment is under 4%.
Compare these figures to those of our main European Union neighbours. France has an unemployment level double of ours and an employment rate significantly lower, at 60%. Italy’s figures are even worse. The social democratic Nordic countries are underachieving the UK in most cases.
Even when compared to the mighty Germany, the UK comes out well: we have slightly higher unemployment for sure, but significantly greater employment levels.
So, the UK and the economic model which underpins how we operate is robust and highly effective at putting money in more workers’ pockets than ever before.
In short, the UK’s jobs market has defied the expectations, not only of remain activists who have been predicting daily meltdowns since the Brexit referendum on 23 June 2016, but of those who want to take us back to the troubled social engineering years of the 1970s.
The reason why the UK is enjoying the best jobs market for decades is exactly because of the pro-business reforms initiated by Governments between 1979 and 1990.
Legislation from that period curbed the worst industrial excesses and has subsequently driven down the number of days lost to strikes to record lows. British workers who want to work and provide for their families can do so unimpeded by the political games of others.
The liberalisation of the banking sector over those years has resulted in improved business access to a growing range of sources of capital that allow entrepreneurs to move quickly to seize new opportunities.
Although not perfect, the UK has some of the most flexible employment practices in the economically developed world. So rather than being penalised through heavy upfront costs and immediate obligations by taking on workers, employers are able to reduce the risks in the unfortunate event that they find themselves with an unsuitable, unproductive or disruptive worker.
The much maligned ‘gig economy’ has given some workers more control over their lives in balancing work and out-of-work commitments at times that best suit them. Similarly, other workers have chosen multiple roles, these days known as portfolio careers or ‘slashies’.
But even more important than these legal and technical changes, has been the cultural shift in attitudes towards businesspeople.
When I was growing up, the prevailing assumptions in the education system and in society more generally elsewhere – propagated by an entitled socialist elite - was that business was, somehow, not respectable.
Now, there is the reverse expectation: that going into business and the world of work is the norm. The rising generation of young people are more work ready than their predecessors and full of brilliant business ideas.
This pro-business and entrepreneurial culture actually shows itself behind the latest employment figures. This prolonged jobs boom owes very little to that previous engine of growth: the high street.
So versatile and flexible is our economy that jobs are being created even when the once mighty retail sector is contracting.
32.7m. A figure to be proud of and proof that when you liberate wealth creators from heavy legislative and taxation burdens – we all benefit.
Ends .....
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