Looking forward, the pmi surveys for manufacturing, services and Construction all seem to be picking up. The issue for Labour and Starmer being will they benefit from any of that before the May elections to avoid some sort of wipeout.
Then there is the gloom around the Labour market, the majority of the issues caused by a triple whammy of Labour’s own policies such as new employment legislation, NIC’s, and other imposed costs. Much of this has meant young people (18-24) have faced youth unemployment at 14% given the high cost of employing them.
Ai is clearly another factor with this that won’t be going away and will probably accelerate in the future. The natural rate of unemployment may well increase. The main comfort for Labour is falling inflation and interest rates to be cut a number of times to rescue things for them.
The Reformist 
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