Some good news to wake up to this morning, as the ONS’ job figures show payroll workers have now surpassed the pre-pandemic peak in an astonishingly quick recovery. After inflation, pay is also up by a whopping 6%…

Unfortunately, total public sector employment in June 2021 was up 131,000, or 2.4%, on the previous June, largely because of the ongoing response to the pandemic. The big state era is definitely back…

UPDATE: As has been pointed out in the comments below, the furlough scheme finishes at the end of the month and some million people will become unemployed if they don’t take one of the many vacancies available.