With rising numbers in Britain too ill to work, it's time to ask the question: what if work itself is making us sick? It's not as physically hazardous as it used to be, but it seems to becoming more psychologically hazardous ft.com/content/3db7b2… People report working harder, faster, to tighter deadlines than in the past (chart from @resfoundation)

Truss's slogan is "growth, growth, growth." One problem: most people don't know what GDP growth is. No-one is outside Downing Street chanting “What do we want? 2.5 per cent annual GDP growth. When do we want it? Over the medium term.” ft.com/content/c67c07… That's not to say the public is ignorant about the economy or indifferent to it. People have a very good understanding of some economic concepts & follow them closely. Most notably interest rates and inflation.

Notes from a submerging economy enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/70128bb… It’s in this context that cabinet is debating not updating benefits by inflation. Trouble is, people are already sinking. Making the poor poorer is a false economy right now, even if all you care about is growth & the public finances.

Are the British the worst idlers in the world? Let's fact-check these five assertions from Britannia Unchained (which was co-authored by our new PM and chancellor)... ft.com/content/65548d… Do Brits work among the lowest hours? No.

Social care jobs are jobs of the future. The sector employs about 2 per cent of the working-age population today and might well need to employ 4 per cent by 2033 to meet rising demand. The question is: do we want them to be bad jobs, or good ones? ft.com/content/2165c8… The shortage of social care workers makes perfect sense. These are tough jobs but they no longer pay a premium to other low-paid jobs with better conditions. In 2012/13, care workers earned 13p an hour more than retail workers. By 2019/20, they earned 21p less.

Why are we working so hard? It's not making us richer, just sicker ft.com/content/e98358…

At a time of labour shortages, it's worth remembering the government is holding an ever growing number of people in limbo, banning them from working & contributing even though many would love to ft.com/content/1412f4… Other countries don't do this. The evidence is clear that the longer you ban people from working, the harder they ultimately find it to get a job, be healthy, learn the language, integrate, get off benefits.

The UK govt's plan to get "half a million people off welfare and into work" by sanctioning jobseekers after 4 weeks who don't take any job outside their field has...a few holes. First, there's no evidence to suggest unemployed people are dragging their feet on finding jobs. Unlike after the financial crisis, the unemployment rate has dropped incredibly quickly & is now 4.1 % - close to pre-Covid historic lows. The fact employers are suffering labour shortages is not because the newly unemployed are being too picky.

Low prices are important for consumers, especially those on low incomes. But in single-minded pursuit of that goal, we traded resilience for efficiency. Now we are paying the price. ft.com/content/f65a55… Remember when Sainsbury's and Asda wanted to merge? Their explicit justification was that, by becoming an even more powerful buyer, they could squeeze even lower prices from suppliers. about.sainsburys.co.uk/~/media/Files/…

So, why is there a shortage of truck drivers? It's complicated, so this will be a little thread. Full column here ft.com/content/5f832d… First up, the hours are really long and unpredictable. Here's a current job ad: Driving hours are limited by law (9 hours a day, 10 right now due to shortage) but the days are much longer (loading, unloading, waiting, enforced breaks, etc) Drivers say 13 to 15 hours are typical. It's exhausting.

Next time you hear someone insist "Brits just don't apply" for certain jobs, take a look at the current job adverts. Today I wrote about food factories... ft.com/content/1c489f… In this sector, the era of free movement has shaped everything from the rhythm, security and location of work to the prices we have grown used to in the shops.

Finally got round to reading @AdamPosen's piece on nostalgia which was an excellent read - lots I agreed with and lots I disagreed with foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite… I agree we shouldn't treat manufacturing jobs with nostalgia & aim to bring them all back - not realistic given automation anyway

I've written about insecurity among the young & how it's changing the way they see the world. "We're drowning in insecurity," says a new grad. “I sometimes have this feeling that we are edging towards a precipice, or falling in it already,” says another. ft.com/content/77d586… Wealth amassed by older generations (see chart above) will of course flow down to younger ones. But that will exacerbate inequality between those with wealthy parents and those without. Young people feel this divide intensely.

Have you ever heard someone ask this Q about why Brits won't pick fruit and veg?
@JudithREvans
& I have a story which sheds some light. It's about the experience of some Russians & Belarusians coming to pick UK fruit on a new visa pilot (Thread) ft.com/content/11e49a… They expected hard work, long hours, and the minimum wage. But the problem the faced was the opposite of too much work: the ones we spoke to were being deprived of it for not meeting productivity targets.

Are Brits "too lazy" to do the jobs migrant workers do, like fruit picking? Are farmers "too unpatriotic" to hire them? No and no. Let's start by looking at how the job has changed since Brits used to do it. 1/n ft.com/content/eb5e3b… Piece rates are still common, but min wage law means farmers must top up the pay of pickers whose productivity is too low. Supermarkets have exerted relentless pressure on price & quality standards. The result is has been a HUGE intensification of this job.

Politicians: cherry-picking the best stats for your speeches doesn't persuade the public all is well, it persuades them they're being lied to ft.com/content/ac72d1… A worked example follows... Philip Hammond's spring speech 2019 (the last "normal" speech of this kind, I think?) rattles off a string of wonderful stats about the "remarkably robust" economy. All are technically correct. But still...

Shame on me, given my job, but only since the pandemic have I really started to understand how threadbare the UK's safety net has become. Take statutory sick pay. The UK is now at the very bottom of all OECD countries. Even Trump's America is doing more. Some examples of other countries, versus the UK ft.com/content/51aea2…

To let unemployment surge under the cover of allowing the economy to adjust naturally to the "new normal" would be intellectually dishonest and economically dangerous. We won't know what jobs are viable post-Covid until we're actually post-Covid. ft.com/content/f3166a… Meanwhile there aren't enough new jobs for people to "reallocate" into.

The gig economy isn't the future of work after all. In fact, it might not have a future at all. ft.com/content/11e2e1… Uber and Lyft say they'll have to raise prices by 20% to 120% in California if forced to treat drivers as employees. That's an indication of how much money they've been saving by ignoring the laws that apply to everyone else...

I don't get this line from the OECD's Stefano Scarpetta. Is anyone on furlough in any OECD country actually banned from moving employers/getting a new job? Are they even disincentivised, really? Depends on the details of each country's furlough scheme, but if you know they writing is on the wall for your job, you're still incentivised to get a new one if you can. People aren't lazy dummies.

1) Since Priti Patel has been given front page space for her evidence-free theory about how "fear of racism" is to blame for Leicester's sweatshops, I thought I'd do a factful thread about some other, more obvious, candidates. Beginning with central govt... HMRC is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage. It doesn't do enough inspections of high-risk workplaces, penalties are paltry & prosecutions rare. prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/a-min…