Dangerous classes

Employment has been downplayed as a measure of the economy’s health

- BY AASIM SAJJAD AKHTAR

Wworkers

PERENNIALLY obsessed with securing the next IMF bailout package, our economic managers spend much time and energy curating facts and figures to meet the demands of the proverbial donor. There is one macroeconomic statistic, however, with which the ‘experts’ are least bothered: unemployment.

The publication of the latest Labour Force Survey caused a brief ripple but, predictably, the news cycle moved on swiftly. In my estimation, the LFS greatly understates the scale of unemployment, making the lack of meaningful debate generated by its publication even more remarkable.

Let us start with the quoted facts: the official unemployment rate is said to be 7.1 per cent, equating to an absolute figure of around six million people. In the four years since the last LFS was published in 2021, unemployment has surged by 30pc, or almost 1.5m people. Youth unemployment rates are particularly high, with the 15-24 age group worst off at almost 13pc. Women suffer from fewer employment opportunities than men, with educated segments especially hard hit across the gender divide.