Chart of the Day: Unfilled Vacancies
The seasonally adjusted number of unfilled vacancies in the UK economy has grown steadily over the last two years from just under 590,000 to a new high of 680,000. What might this figure be telling us?
read more...»Union membership among teachers
I read in the Guardian a couple of days ago that “Only 55% of teachers in private schools are members of a union compared with 95% in state schools.” This came from a report on employment practices in the independent sector which hinted that many staff in the private sector operate without formal contracts or with employment contracts that are rarely if ever altered as circumstances change. I was surprised to hear that so few teachers in independent schools are unionised, after all, although every school is bound by employment law, teaching is a profession where trade union support can be crucial in matters relating to health and safety and employment protection. I was teaching about trade unions last week and gave my students a list of the acronyms of ten of Britain’s largest union organisations. The top number of correct identifications was three! Trade union membership has been in decline for many years, The most recent figures show that only one worker in four is now a member of a trade union.
Stormy Weather
The UK has been battered by uncomfortable and volatile conditions and fears over damage to property this week - and the weather has been awful as well.
When it rains, it pours, and this is as true for the macroeconomy as anything else.
read more...»Recession Watch: American Idle
Economists in the United States pay a lot of attention to the monthly payroll numbers and the latest set of figures are being taken as a sign that recession is more or less a done deal in the USA.
read more...»Good Job?
At last, some good news for the British economy? Unemployment fell in the UK in the final quarter of 2007, with both the Claimant Count and Labour Force Survey measures recording decreasing joblessness. Overall, the employment rate has risen to 74.7%.
The Claimant Count recorded a drop of 10,800 to 794,600 and the LFS a fall of 61,000 to 1.61 million. As expected, the distribution of employment and unemployment differs from region to region, and also within regions.
