UK Labour Market Stats

mwpt

antrobus wrote: »

Don't know about that. The ILO has numbers that show the UK at No5 in the world for the highest average wage.

So does this tell us that we are mostly paid at about the 5th rankings or that we have a lot of bankers and CEOs being rewarded massively while most other pay is below 5th in the rankings?

I don't know, and that's why the average is often such a useless figure. I certainly struggle to believe that the jobs under the 90th percentile are paid [strike]less[/strike]more than Australia, for example.

Happy to be proven wrong, just a casual observation.

Generali

mwpt wrote: »

So does this tell us that we are mostly paid at about the 5th rankings or that we have a lot of bankers and CEOs being rewarded massively while most other pay is below 5th in the rankings?

I don't know, and that's why the average is often such a useless figure. I certainly struggle to believe that the jobs under the 90th percentile are paid less than Australia, for example.

Happy to be proven wrong, just a casual observation.

The Gini Coefficient measures the spread of incomes in an economy and the World Bank's figures are generally considered to be the most comparable internationally:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI

The Gini Coefficient runs from 0-100 where 0 means everyone earns exactly the same amount and 100 means 1 person earns all the money and the rest earn 0.

There are some fairly significant gaps in data but luckily the Gini Coefficient tends to be pretty stable. For 2010, which is the latest year for there to be really comprehensive data, The Ukraine is the most equal country with a Coefficient of 24.8. The UK is at 34.8 and Aus at 34.9, so much of a muchness really between the two.

France is at 33.8, Germany 31.1, Italy 34.4, Spain 35.8, USA 40.5.

It's worth having a play with the data but do be careful. Many a bearded sociology-type will tell you how important the Gini Coefficient is. However, think about just how accurate this data is. Rather unhelpfully, unlike the excellent ONS, the World Bank doesn't give us any kind of confidence interval they just give a number. As they clearly don't have the income of every person in the world this work is based on statistical data and any statistical data is unlikely to be 100% representative of the underlying population in every way. In reality the numbers for France and the UK are probably so close as to be effectively the same number.

Then there's the underlying incomes. Pakistan comes in with a coefficient of 29.6, Romania with 28.8. On the face of it, certainly if you overlay the over-simplified Socialist narrative on the data, these places should be modern day paradises for the poor as the incomes are so evenly spread. The reality is that these countries have so many people that are grindingly poor that the incomes of people we would consider to be shockingly poor extend quite a long way up the incomes ladder, most likely.

cells

ukcarper wrote: »

So a sizeable minority would like more hours.

want and trying to get are two very different things

ukcarper

cells wrote: »

want and trying to get are two very different things

True but if you think all people on ZHC are happy I think you are mistaken.

Mistermeaner

There's lots of unhappy people generally

Generali

ukcarper wrote: »

True but if you think all people on ZHC are happy I think you are mistaken.

Nobody said that.

The fact is that the majority of people tell the ONS that they are happy on ZHCs and the flexible nature of the work means that jobs on ZHCs are pretty easy come, easy go. If you don't like what you're doing now the chances are that something else will be along soon enough.

ukcarper

Generali wrote: »

Nobody said that.

The fact is that the majority of people tell the ONS that they are happy on ZHCs and the flexible nature of the work means that jobs on ZHCs are pretty easy come, easy go. If you don't like what you're doing now the chances are that something else will be along soon enough.

I can see that ZHC suit some types of employment and many people, but ZHC have been abused by some employers. I don't think the employment situation in the UK is as good as some of you think.

Generali

ukcarper wrote: »

I can see that ZHC suit some types of employment and many people, but ZHC have been abused by some employers. I don't think the employment situation in the UK is as good as some of you think.

What do you think the official statistics are missing?

The ONS data are pretty cheery: unemployment lowish and falling fast, employment at all time highs, only about 1 in 40 of workers on ZHCs and only about 1 in 100 works on ZHCs and upset about it. Wages rising pretty fast and approaching all-time highs.

It's hard to see what could get much better without entering into the realms of fantasy.

Tromking

Generali wrote: »

What do you think the official statistics are missing?

The ONS data are pretty cheery: unemployment lowish and falling fast, employment at all time highs, only about 1 in 40 of workers on ZHCs and only about 1 in 100 works on ZHCs and upset about it. Wages rising pretty fast and approaching all-time highs.

It's hard to see what could get much better without entering into the realms of fantasy.

Something is missing however from this rosy picture you paint.
Tax receipts don't seem to be reflecting the record numbers of people in work and rumours are that Gideon will again miss his deficit reduction target by just the £10 billion this year. Too may private sector workers in sh*te jobs, paying no tax and in receipt of benefits perhaps? I'm beginning to wonder if it makes no real difference to the public purse to be like France with 10% unemployment and the UK with a sh*te jobs boom.

Generali

Tromking wrote: »

Something is missing however from this rosy picture you paint.
Tax receipts don't seem to be reflecting the record numbers of people in work and rumours are that Gideon will again miss his deficit reduction target by just the £10 billion this year. Too may private sector workers in sh*te jobs, paying no tax and in receipt of benefits perhaps? I'm beginning to wonder if it makes no real difference to the public purse to be like France with 10% unemployment and the UK with a sh*te jobs boom.

Haha, yes I see what you did there. You used the 'posho' name that Mr Osbourne was given at birth, Gideon, and turned it as an insult against him. Lovin' your work. Hahaha. You know 'Tony' Benn was christened Wedgewood. Talk about an out of touch posh bloke. LOLZZZZzzzzzzz. And Tony Blair's middle name was Lynton. Posho war criminal. LOL. Here's a picture of a cat.



Awwwwwww. Or is it an otter? Still, pretty cute huh? When did this site turn into Facebook. Still cute though. And Gideon, LOLZ.

As to the rest of it. Tax receipt predictions are going to be missed by £10bn it is predicted apparently. Which tax receipts and against which prediction? Oil taxes will be down from a previously predicted c. £7-8bn to perhaps £100mn. That might be a big part of the gap, or not of course as you don't provide any sort of link to a source of data, just a vague assertion.

But yeah, I know. Stupid posh people with their out of touch names right? :rotfl: