The latest official data show how far the UK economy is lagging behind other industrialised economies in terms of productivity, in this case output per hour worked. There is too a long-standing discussion amongst economists in Britain about the so-called ‘productivity puzzle’. There is a genuine crisis of productivity in Britain. But in reality there […]
Posts Tagged ‘Productivity’
Brexit, in or out, is far less important than investment to end the UK productivity crisis
Feb 27th, 2016 by Michael Burke.
The UK “recovery” cannot be sustained. Osborne has failed to rebalance the economy and boost productivity
Jan 26th, 2016 by Grahame Morris.An Opposition Debate on Trade, Exports, Innovation and Productivity highlighted the fragile nature of our economic recovery. The fundamentals for a strong economy have been overlooked by a Government more interested in short term headlines than our long term economic interests. The Government’s promise to “rebalance” the economy has not materialised with the UK now having […]
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Despite claims of a recovery, UK productivity is stagnant
Oct 2nd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The basic reason why UK wage growth has been virtually flat for a decade, at a level still 6% below pre-2008-9 levels, is Osborne’s relentless squeeze on benefits, tax credits, low pay and public expenditure. But there are two other very important contributory causes. One is that the proportion of our national income which we […]
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Why the Left is needed to attack Osborne’s shocking economic record
Jun 17th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It’s depressing that so many of the Leadership contestants seem to be colluding with Osborne’s deplorable policies instead of attacking them head-on. The simplest measure of overall economic performance is real GDP per head: in the UK’s case it is still, 8 years on, no higher than at the start of 2007 and still below […]
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Productivity is central flaw in Tory economic argument
Apr 5th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.One of the company bosses signing the Telegraph letter sought to clinch his case by saying it was ‘madness’ to abandon the government’s economic policy since it was only half done and they needed to ‘finish the job’. But what is half done? Not reducing the deficit since it was £118bn when Alistair Darling’s two […]
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Osborne’s boasts were lies – his was not a budget for a prosperous Britain
Mar 25th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The truth finally came out. Osborne claimed that the deficit was being cut this year when in fact that is only due to the exceptional delaying of tax payments till the end of the fiscal year by the super-rich in order to take advantage of the reduction in the top income tax rate to 45%. […]
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The downward spiral: private debt rising, wages, productivity & inflation falling
Oct 23rd, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.The Bank of England’s Andy Haldane is a fine economist. He occupies an ideology-free zone. This is highly unusual in central bank circles. He made a particularly skilful and nuanced speech last week. Many gushed over it. Gillian Tett of the Financial Times suggested that it was good enough to qualify Haldane as a journalist. […]
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Solving the Productivity Problem
Jun 18th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.The high foreheads down at the Bank of England are stumped, confuzzled. Employment is up, output is up, economic growth is up but productivity is stubbornly stalled. In fact, it remains well below the pre-crisis peak. Such a scenario in economics is what Jack the Ripper is to murder mystery. There’s a definite culprit, but […]
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How PM Matteo Renzi’s ‘Jobs Act’ will sink Italy
Apr 6th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Italy’s new PM, Matteo Renzi, has pledged to slash the country’s record unemployment with his American-branded ‘Jobs Act’. But his labour reforms, which will see short term job contracts extended for up to 3 years, are more of the same medicine applied since the turn of the 1990s that have been such bad news for […]
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Britain’s output per (available) worker is back to 2003 levels
Feb 23rd, 2013 by Jeremy Smith.This week, we have learnt from the Office for National Statistics that 2.5 million were still unemployed in the last quarter of 2012. The UK economy is failing to use the skills and resources of our people to best effect in the common interest. This is to a large extent because the government’s economic policies […]
