Squeezed out

Posted: October 31, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Economics, Labour market, Mortgages, Private renting, Social housing | Leave a comment

Housing is the big thing missing from today’s major report on living standards from the Resolution Foundation.

The final report of its Commission on Living Standards looks at the plight of low and middle income families. Things were bad even before the crash with average incomes falling by £570 between 2003 and 2008 as growing inequality meant that prosperity was not shared around. The gap was only made up by a £730 a year increase in tax credits.

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Joining the dots on unemployment and welfare reform

Posted: October 21, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Labour market, Welfare reform | Tags: | Leave a comment

There’s a contradiction lurking behind the good news about falling unemployment: we seem to be succeeding in getting people back into work who don’t want to be and failing with people who do.

The headline numbers in the labour market statistics are that unemployment fell by 50,000 in the three months to August to 2.5 million and the number of people in employment rose by 212,000 to 29.6 million. The latter figure is up by 462,000 since the 2010 election and is the highest total since records began in 1971.

Part of the reason why the number of people in work rose faster than unemployment fell is that the proportion of people between 16 and 64 defined as economically inactive is also falling. The total is down by 243,000 since the election to just over nine million and more than half of that fall (138,000) happened in the last three months.

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