Michael Simmons

Has the jobs market cooled enough to cut interest rates?

12 March 2024 7:47 pm

Is the Bank of England about to cut interest rates? Today’s labour market statistics might just give them the room…

Britain’s worklessness disaster

7 March 2024 3:11 am

Whilst Jeremy Hunt’s cut to National Insurance may grab the headlines, the real story of today’s Budget was hidden in…

Too many people in Britain aren’t working

13 February 2024 10:54 pm

Britain’s worklessness crisis is getting worse. This morning the ONS released figures showing that 1.3 million are on unemployment. But…

Full extent of sick-note Britain revealed

5 February 2024 11:17 pm

We already know that Britain has a massive sick-note problem but we did not, until today, know just how large.…

Sobriety isn’t worth it

20 January 2024 9:00 am

Has Britain’s jobs market bounced back?

16 January 2024 7:30 pm

The jobs market has turned a corner. Vacancies have fallen again to 934,000, down 49,000 in the last three months…

There’s another dodgy data scandal brewing

13 January 2024 9:04 pm

The government is reeling from the Post Office Horizon scandal. ‘Lessons must be learnt’, goes the cry around Westminster. But…

Have we really lost hundreds of thousands of workers since Covid?

12 December 2023 7:37 pm

The jobs market appears to be slowing down, but can we trust the figures? Vacancies have fallen for the longest…

Net migration hits 672,000 – with 2022 figures revised up

23 November 2023 9:20 pm

Has migration to the UK peaked? Net migration in the year to June hit 672,000, down from 745,000 in 2022.…

Was Eat Out to Help Out really behind the second wave?

21 November 2023 3:19 am

Did Eat Out to Help Out increase Covid? It’s a conclusion the inquiry and lockdown’s cheerleaders seem keen to push.…

Why was an erroneous graph used to justify the second lockdown?

11 November 2023 9:00 am

Two stories are emerging from the Covid Inquiry: one that it wants to tell and one that it does not.…

The Covid Inquiry is exposing lockdown’s dodgy models

7 November 2023 8:18 pm

Did we lock down on a false premise? Yesterday was Ben Warner’s turn at the Covid Inquiry. He was an…

We’re still recovering from lockdown’s impact on children

2 November 2023 6:22 pm

Some 140,000 children missed more than half of the school days they should have attended this spring. Research by the…

The taxman’s dodgy data

23 October 2023 5:00 pm

Ten years ago, HMRC unveiled what was billed as ‘the biggest change’ to the tax system since PAYE began in…

The Covid inquiry asked the wrong questions of Neil Ferguson

18 October 2023 5:00 pm

SPI-M-O are at the Covid inquiry this week. They’re the shadowy group of mathematical modellers who contributed – more than…

It’s official: we don’t know how many people are unemployed

17 October 2023 7:10 pm

For perhaps the first time in its history, the Office for National Statistics does not know how many employed, unemployed…

In defence of drunken freshers’ weeks

19 August 2023 9:00 am

Students need a drunken freshers’ week

Public sector pay pushes wage growth to record high

15 August 2023 7:29 pm

Public sector pay growth has jumped 9.6 per cent, the fastest rate since current records began 22 years ago. Private…

Seven graphs that show the challenge for the Tories at the election

21 July 2023 6:28 pm

The Tories have avoided total wipeout in last night’s triple by-election. Rishi Sunak dodged the embarrassment of becoming the first…

Sunak’s debt target is slipping out of reach

21 June 2023 6:55 pm

Threadneedle Street will have all the economic limelight this week as the Bank of England sets interest rates tomorrow. With…

Record pay deals will worry the Bank of England

13 June 2023 7:24 pm

Wages are slowly closing the gap with inflation, up 7.2 per cent in the year to April versus inflation of…

Britain’s economy is struggling with so many off sick

16 May 2023 7:33 pm

One of the UK’s biggest economic problems is having so many people out of work – and the slowest return…

Ten yardsticks to judge Humza Yousaf by as first minister

28 March 2023 1:11 am

Humza Yousaf is the new leader of the SNP and in the coming days will be sworn in at the…

Did Scotland’s minimum alcohol pricing work? A look at the data

24 March 2023 7:15 pm

As Nicola Sturgeon prepares to exit stage right, she’s been reeling off her greatest hits. Things she thinks she’s done…