THE UK is in the grip of an employment emergency. There is a record 1.25 million job vacancies and a labour shortage that is keeping businesses that should be open closed.
At a time when hospitality could be making the most of the easing of restrictions, there is a staffing shortfall and some outlets will not be able to open throughout peak season.
Starting salaries are hitting record heights across sectors. Inflation is soaring and the energy crisis is deepening.
Work and Pensions Committee chairman Stephen Timms has been pursuing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to correct the record over repeated claims in the House of Commons that there are now more people in employment than before the pandemic.
The claims, made on nine occasions, prompted Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, to write to the PM in February: “According to the latest ONS figures it is wrong to claim there are now more people in work than before the pandemic began.
“The increase on the number of people who are on payrolls is more than offset by the reduction in the number of people who are self-employed.”
East Ham Labour MP Mr Timms has a response pending to a further call for clarification he has made that followed a request by Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Liaison Committee, at which the PM was quizzed on the issue, last month.
The PM claimed then that he “took steps to correct the record”, adding he had “been very punctilious to talk about payroll employment”.
Sir David wrote to Mr Johnson: “If, as seems to be the case, your statement referred only to the increase in the number of people on payrolls, it would be a selective use of data that is likely to give a misleading impression of trends in the labour market unless that distinction is carefully explained.”
Tory Harwich and North Essex MP Sir Bernard wrote to Mr Johnson this month: “I would be grateful if you could confirm when this correction will be made.”
Mr Timms said: “It certainly seems to me that the records should all be corrected.”
Repeatedly presenting likely misleading statements stymies policy-forming to improve what is a dire, not a positive, situation.
For information, the relevant figures are that there are 32.493m in employment against 33.073m just before the pandemic.
There was no update from No 10 as of Friday afternoon.
Elsewhere, Mr Johnson, in India, is reported to be lining up a free trade agreement there for the end of this year. It would be optimistic to expect to reach even early harvest by then.
Business organisations and industry bodies have highlighted the impact of Brexit, says business editor Ian McConnell. “It is difficult not to wonder, from time to time, if there might be a significant number of Brexiters out there who can see the pervasive effects of their folly but just cannot bring themselves to say they do,” he writes.
Deputy business editor Scott Wright asks if there could be better times for Glasgow city centre ahead after a retail investment boost.
Fresh doubts about a promised green jobs boom underline the value of North Sea gas, Mark Williamson contends this week.
A glass is raised as brothers Christian and David Stewart, who were backed to buy and now revamp Ryrie’s, built in the 1800s as a stopping station for horse and cart traffic in Haymarket, writes Kristy Dorsey.
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