UK: SMITH ON ECONOMICS - THE REALITY OF A JOBLESS RECOVERY.

Voteless and jobless - that's how this recovery is seen, though votes have yet to be cast and employment figures contradict the view. But with current pressures, says David Smith, the jobless myth may become reality.

If you were to ask the man on the Clapham omnibus, or perhaps these days it should be the man stuck in the M25 traffic jam, for a description of this recovery, the reply would be characterised, variously, as the jobless or voteless (for the Government) recovery, and the talk would be of an upturn in which the consumer has played little or no part.