Employment for one and all

ON this jobs point, it was fascinating – and instructive – to note the latest data from the OECD showed the pan-OECD employment rate kicked up to its highest level in years in the closing months of 2018.

The employment rate kicked up in 26 of the 36 OECD countries – that’s, all the biggest economies in the world with the exception of China and India.

The most significant increase was in the US; and there the driver was formerly discouraged job-seekers coming back to look for work and getting jobs.

Clearly also the inverse of “one man’s (rising) wage is another women’s job” has kicked in as well. Muted wages growth has boosted jobs everywhere.

Never before have so many men – and women – had jobs: and that is surely “what it is all about Alfie.”