A reverse recovery?

Jobs growth remains strong, a sign that the economy is picking up. But pay is still far behind where economists expected it to be. In January, they were hailing this as the year of the pay rise, but with fewer than fourth months to go it seems there is now no way that, on average, real wages can be higher this year than they were in 2013. In fact, pay including bonuses actually fell this month, while pay excluding bonuses rose anaemically and far below inflation.

This will not be much of a shock to low-paid workers. I spent a day last week interviewing retail workers and their managers about pay and opportunities. From their perspective, there is no sign of a recovery - quite the reverse. Full-time contracts are increasingly being broken up into part-time contracts that offer employers more flexibility in how they deploy their staff. The job that ten people used to do is now being done by five and layers of management have been removed. In this light, it is unsurprising that the latest Government figures show zero-hours contracts going up and persistently high levels of involuntary part-time and temporary employment.