employment
Degrees of failure: the great university rip-off
Is university still worth it?
Jonathan Ashworth: ‘We are at risk of a lost generation’
Jonathan Ashworth on Labour’s plans to cut unemployment
The civil service’s exercise in navel-gazing
Navel-gazing in the civil service
Britain needs more honesty about unemployment
Is low unemployment causing us more problems than we realise? The suggestion might seem absurd, offensive even. It’s reminiscent of…
In Japan, being a token westerner is big business
How to make money as a token westerner in Japan
Work is no place for your ‘whole self’
One of the few things I have learned in this life is that Dante Alighieri was wrong. In the Inferno…
Bad news, Governor: the wage-rise spiral is already raging
I’ve had the opportunity recently to take part in wage-rise discussions for several small entities in which I’m involved. The…
What’s to become of Africa’s teeming youth?
Demographers are attached to their theories. The field’s most enduring is the ‘demographic transition’, whereby modernisation inexorably lowers a society’s…
Who survived the sinking of the Titanic?
Prime numbers As of 29 January Boris Johnson will have been Prime Minister for two years and 190 days. Currently…
Boris’s hostage to fortune
Most prime ministers would be worried about supply chain shortages. But as became increasingly clear at the Tory party conference…
Was furlough the worst £70 billion ever spent?
Concorde obviously. The Iraq War perhaps? Or Scottish devolution? It is not hard to come up with a list of…
How to solve the looming pigs-in-blankets crisis
This is getting serious. Never mind global shortages of microchips, plastics, copper and container ships; now we’re running out of…
Letters: Why aren’t Italians fighting for their liberty?
Wage concern Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s call for higher wages to end the shortage of British HGV drivers (‘Your country…
Is it time for a Dad’s Army of lorry drivers?
Here’s a patriotic proposal: let’s form a Dad’s Army of lorry drivers, of which the Road Haulage Association reckons there’s…
The ‘alpha migrants’ are here – why don’t we let them work?
They’re bright, brave – and could help solve our labour crisis
Vaccine passports could threaten the employment recovery
Alongside the UK’s latest step in reopening, optimistic forecasts have been rolling in concerning the economy’s timeline for returning to…
In the post-pandemic economy, the workers are the boss
In the post-pandemic economy, workers have the upper hand
The CV trick that guarantees you an interview
Sometimes the opposite of a good idea is, as Niels Bohr said, another good idea. But the converse is also…
Japan's punishing workplace culture
Are the world’s hardest workers about to get a well-earned break? That seems to be the hope of the Japanese…
The social tyranny of singing ‘Happy Birthday’
Among the horrors, some aspects of lockdown were bizarrely less gruelling than expected; indeed for some people, the experience was…
The problem with the Supreme Court’s Uber ruling
They are monitored by the firm. They don’t have the option of working for other companies. And they are entitled…
Universal Credit and the future of the welfare state
Amid the many failures of public policy during the Covid crisis, one success has gone largely unnoticed. The Universal Credit…
The cult of London
The phrase ‘rich people’s problems’ has its uses. I once overheard a group in a Knightsbridge restaurant sympathising with a…
