[MTVN]

Well this is the latest info on full time employment I can find: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f...people-in-jobs

"Full-time jobs accounted for 95% of the rise in employment over the past year, with private sector employment rising by 637,000."

It's true that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The biggest issue atm seems to be productivity, which Mark Carney is saying today has been worse than expected for the past seven years. It's also why they've revised down their growth expectation for the next few months. I think the thing with zero-hour contracts it not to ban them altogether but to tighten the rules and stop employers exploiting them, because they do have their place in any modern economy. Overall though the fact does remain that our economy is in pretty good shape; it's hardly booming but it is still growing, unemployment is still falling, inflation is lower than hoped but it's no cause for panic, and living standards are gradually expected to bounce back from hereon in. We might not get the good life that Cameron was promising but we should get reasonable stability, I just hope that the speed and depth of cuts that the Tories are planning don't threaten that but tbh I doubt a lot of their pledges on public spending will come to fruition anyway

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by MTVN

Well this is the latest info on full time employment I can find: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f...people-in-jobs

"Full-time jobs accounted for 95% of the rise in employment over the past year, with private sector employment rising by 637,000."

It's true that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The biggest issue atm seems to be productivity, which Mark Carney is saying today has been worse than expected for the past seven years. It's also why they've revised down their growth expectation for the next few months. I think the thing with zero-hour contracts it not to ban them altogether but to tighten the rules and stop employers exploiting them, because they do have their place in any modern economy. Overall though the fact does remain that our economy is in pretty good shape; it's hardly booming but it is still growing, unemployment is still falling, inflation is lower than hoped but it's no cause for panic, and living standards are gradually expected to bounce back from hereon in. We might not get the good life that Cameron was promising but we should get reasonable stability, I just hope that the speed and depth of cuts that the Tories are planning don't threaten that.

Revised down is tory speak for we lied about productivity and growth to win an election.
Nobody has ever suggested 0hr contracts have no place, they have a specific place it's when you use them to reduce workers employment rights in certain sectors they become an issue.
People are considerably worse off so where the sense of optimism in the face of austerity is coming from I don't know.

[MTVN]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Revised down is tory speak for we lied about productivity and growth to win an election.
Nobody has ever suggested 0hr contracts have no place, they have a specific place it's when you use them to reduce workers employment rights in certain sectors they become an issue.
People are considerably worse off so where the sense of optimism in the face of austerity is coming from I don't know.

It's the Bank of England who set the original growth forecast and they who have just revised it down, it's not the government.

The optimism comes from the fact that our economy is undeniably more stable now than it has been for a long time. The general consensus seems to be that that will be reflected in living standards soon: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5e2997c-9...#axzz3a6LDaL9P

Economists are confident that 2015 will be the year households finally see real rises in their standard of living. But they warn that many will still feel poorer than before the crisis.

All but six of the respondents to the Financial Times annual economists’ survey* felt that a combination of falling oil prices and wages finally starting to increase would boost households, after years of falling real incomes

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by MTVN

It's the Bank of England who set the original growth forecast and they who have just revised it down, it's not the government.

The optimism comes from the fact that our economy is undeniably more stable now than it has been for a long time. The general consensus seems to be that that will be reflected in living standards soon: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5e2997c-9...#axzz3a6LDaL9P

Doesn't look that stable to me.

Even as recently as the March Budget, the OBR made a forecast for growth and for tax revenues. Between the Budget and the autumn statement it revised the growth forecast up by a little bit, but revised income tax and national insurance substantially down because, owing to this year’s stagnating wages and cost of living crisis,

growth has not brought in the revenues that the Chancellor wanted. In comparison with the March Budget, we have actually lost £8.4 billion in this fiscal year, not because spending cuts have not gone ahead or tax cuts have not been delivered, but because the tax revenues have not come in as a result of growth and stagnant wages. Ultimately, the only way of reversing the problem is yes, to cut spending, and yes, to raise taxes—as the Chancellor has done in this Parliament—but also to get the economy growing in a stronger way which will bring in tax revenues. If he does not do that, the Chancellor will carry on failing year after year, as he has in this Parliament.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate...5-01-13b.738.0

[user104658]

Originally Posted by MTVN

Well this is the latest info on full time employment I can find: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f...people-in-jobs

"Full-time jobs accounted for 95% of the rise in employment over the past year, with private sector employment rising by 637,000."

It's true that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The biggest issue atm seems to be productivity, which Mark Carney is saying today has been worse than expected for the past seven years. It's also why they've revised down their growth expectation for the next few months. I think the thing with zero-hour contracts it not to ban them altogether but to tighten the rules and stop employers exploiting them, because they do have their place in any modern economy. Overall though the fact does remain that our economy is in pretty good shape; it's hardly booming but it is still growing, unemployment is still falling, inflation is lower than hoped but it's no cause for panic, and living standards are gradually expected to bounce back from hereon in. We might not get the good life that Cameron was promising but we should get reasonable stability, I just hope that the speed and depth of cuts that the Tories are planning don't threaten that but tbh I doubt a lot of their pledges on public spending will come to fruition anyway

Whose living standards are expected to bounce back? Middle-class / middle income households and all those above I presume. On the back of a min-wage-slave workforce worked to the bone for peanuts whose "living standards" will continue to deteriorate, using filthy and disgraceful public transport, trying to live in filthy run down towns, and paying extortionate amounts for unstable rented accommodation that could be sold out from under them with as little as a few months notice. All seems great to me.