LONDON: Britain’s economy created the largest number of new jobs in nearly a year and unemployment hit its lowest rate since mid-2008, official labor market data showed, the last such report before a closely fought election on May 7.
Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the numbers, which cover the three months to February, as underlining his government’s “jobs miracle.”
The opposition Labour Party stressed the slow pace of Britain’s recovery in living standards during Cameron’s tenure.
The unemployment rate now stands at 5.6 percent, down from 7.9 percent at the time of the last election. But the pace of growth in workers’ pay was largely unchanged at nearly 2 percent, the Office for National Statistics said.
With inflation at zero, the gradual recovery in pay is giving relief to workers who suffered an almost unprecedented loss of spending power during Cameron’s five-year term.
But Matthew Whittaker, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, which focuses on issues facing low earners, said it was puzzling that pay was not rising more quickly given the plunge in unemployment since 2013.
“It may be that our labor market shifted over the downturn, with far lower levels of unemployment now needed to bring nominal pay growth back toward the levels seen before the crash,” Whittaker said.
The Resolution Foundation said the higher proportion of jobs in lower-skilled occupations was also dragging down pay growth.
The number of people in employment rose by nearly a quarter of a million — the biggest increase since April last year — to a record 31.05 million. The employment rate also jumped to hit an all-time high of 73.4 percent.
The data helped the pound hit its highest level in nearly four weeks against the dollar.
Cameron got a boost when the head of the International Monetary Fund said his government’s plan was working, although the Fund has also questioned the country’s budget forecasts.
“When we look at the comparative growth rates delivered by various countries in Europe, it’s obvious that what’s happening in the UK has actually worked,” Christine Lagarde said on Thursday at meetings of global policymakers in Washington.
On Wednesday, however, the IMF said Britain would have a budget deficit of 0.3 percent of GDP in 2020 compared with the surplus of 0.3 percent expected by the government.
Earnings in the three months to February, including bonuses, rose by an annual 1.7 percent, slower than 1.9 percent in January.
Excluding bonuses, pay growth edged up 1.8 percent. For February alone, pay excluding bonuses, jumped to 2.2 percent, the biggest increase since May 2011.
The ONS attributed some of the increase to new European Union rules for bankers’ pay which requires remuneration to be concentrated more on basic pay than variable bonuses.
Britain’s unemployment rate declines to multi-year low
Britain’s unemployment rate declines to multi-year low
Saudi minister at Davos urges collaboration on minerals
- The reason of the tension of geopolitics is actually the criticality of the minerals
LONDON: Countries need to collaborate on mining and resources to help avoid geopolitical tensions, Saudi Arabia’s minister of industry and mineral resources told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.
“The reason of the tension of geopolitics is actually the criticality of the minerals, the concentration in different areas of the world,” Bandar Alkhorayef told a panel discussion on the geopolitics of materials.
“The rational thing to do is to collaborate, and that’s what we are doing,” he added. “We are creating a platform of collaboration in Saudi Arabia.”
The Kingdom last week hosted the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh. Alkhorayef said the platform was launched by the government in 2022 as a contribution to the global community. “It’s very important to have a global movement, and that’s why we launched the Future Minerals Forum,” he said. “It is the most important platform of global mining leaders.”
The Kingdom has made mining one of the key pillars of its economy, rapidly expanding the sector under the Vision 2030 reform program with an eye on diversification. Saudi Arabia has an estimated $2.5 trillion in mineral wealth and the ramping up of extraction comes at a time of intense global competition for resources to drive technological development in areas like AI and renewables.
“We realized that unlocking the value that we have in our natural resources, of the different minerals that we have, will definitely help our economy to grow to diversify,” Alkhorayef said. The Kingdom has worked to reduce the timelines required to set up mines while also protecting local communities, he added. Obtaining mining permits in Saudi Arabia has been reduced to just 30 to 90 days compared to the many years required in other countries, Alkhorayef said.
“We learned very, very early that permitting is a bottleneck in the system,” he added. “We all know, and we have to be very, very frank about this, that mining doesn’t have a good reputation globally.
“We are trying to change this and cutting down the licensing process doesn’t only solve it. You need also to show the communities the impact of the mining on their lives.”
Saudi Arabia’s new mining investment laws have placed great emphasis on the development of society and local communities, along with protecting the environment and incorporating new technologies, Alkhorayef said. “We want to build the future mines; we don’t want to build old mines.”
