Get Britain back to work
MARCEL Proust, the French novelist, famously wrote his masterpiece A la recherche du temps perdu ( In search of lost time) from his Paris bedroom, in a dreamy state halfway between waking and sleep.
His present-day compatriots are taking a similar approach to life, if research from the Jean-Jaures Foundation is accurate. Apparently, they view the word ‘rest’ more positively than ‘effort’, and ‘bed’ more favourably than ‘career’.
It suggests that, post-pandemic, the French prefer to cocoon at home rather than going out to work, or even for pleasure. All very Proustian, only without producing any great works of literature.
Some might say that the French have never signed up to the Anglo-Saxon work ethic. Increasingly, however, it looks like neither do we.
The official UK unemployment rate is close to its lowest in nearly half a century at 1.22m, but these figures are deceptive. Nearly 9m working age people – more than 21pc – are ‘economically inactive’ – neither in a job nor looking for one, and do not figure in the unemployment numbers.
The pandemic has produced a big rise in inactivity: numbers are up by 630,000. The biggest drivers are long-term sickness, accounting for 2.5m people, and early retirement, which encompasses over 1m more.
Some of it is entirely legitimate and unavoidable, for instance due to long Covid. But others have opted out of work of their own accord. The pandemic created an increased sense of mortality and the lockdowns led some to believe they could embrace a thriftier life. Work, careers and ambition moved down the list of priorities.
Another concerning development is that, since the pandemic, those who are in work have collectively put in fewer hours.
DOUG McWilliams, of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, has looked at hours worked and productivity. Over three years, there has been a 1.3pc fall in hours worked. On the pre-Covid trend, they would have increased by 4.6pc.
It is a similar story on public sector productivity, which is down by more than 7pc in three years and is 9.5pc lower than it would have been on its pre-pandemic trajectory.
These add up to an alarming shortfall of £194bn from a combination of lower tax revenues and higher public spending.
Working fewer hours or retiring early may be appealing from an individual perspective, but as a wholesale movement, it is not great for a battered economy.
Even on a personal level, a leisurely approach to life is something we tend to approve of far less in others than we do for ourselves. We might not relish working hard, but as consumers and users of public services, we want others to do so on our behalf.
The labour shortage is being felt from restaurants with slow service to interminable muzak on the phone for customer services.
It is fuelling inflation, because employers have to pay more to attract talent. And it is emboldening strikers, because the balance of power between employee and employer has tilted in favour of the former.
Executives are afraid to lose staff they are pandering to with WFH and ‘flexible’ work demands, despite private misgivings. Some employers want to resort to immigration, but this is not easy or politically popular.
Britain risks being trapped in a vice of slow growth, ever-increasing taxes and spending cuts. Breaking free of the trap means boosting growth, making public services more efficient and restoring the nation’s work ethic.