Why a ‘do no harm’ Budget isn’t good enough

Labour market statistics can be pretty dry. Inactivity rates, nominal regular earnings growth, payroll numbers and claimant counts tend not, at first glance, to fire up the imagination. The data dumps are hoovered up by economists and analysts, not least as a guide to future Bank of England interest rate decisions or as a barometer for the UK s economic vigour. These are important endeavours but it doesn t take much to look beyond the numbers and reflect that the aggregate is comprised of millions of human stories. Someone still out of work, someone signing on. Someone not hiring, someone being let go. Someone getting a pay rise, someone feeling the squeeze. This came to mind yesterday as I looked over the figures and realised that the drop in vacancies (to a level not seen for more than five years) was driven almost entirely by small businesses tightening the purse strings. More than 13 million people, accounting for 47 per cent of all private sector employment, work at a