Len Shackleton, IEA Editorial and Research Fellow, has authored a piece for CapX commenting on how the government should respond to positive employment statistics and the furlough scheme’s departure.

Len argues that, in spite of the clear success of the furlough and Coronavirus Job Retention schemes, that the government must now resist the urge to interfere further by in the labour market by increasing wages and allow the “recuperative powers of capitalism” to take hold.

“It needs to resist calls to raise wages in those parts of the public sector where productivity has nose-dived with homeworking. It should be very wary of pressure to create new employment rights and to push up minimum wages too far. It should look again at the extra burdens it has placed on the shrunken self-employment sector. It should be looking at ways to loosen occupational regulation and to enable mid-career job switches.”

Read the full article here.