IEA Featured Labour Market

Annabel Denham, IEA Director of Communications, has written for The Spectator on the Financial Conduct Authority's plans to require UK listed companies to ensure that 40% of their directorial board are women. Annabel argues that such quotas have a proven track record of failure on the Continent and that regulatory bodies should focus on their ... Continue reading

IEA Director of Communications Annabel Denham accused the government of hypocrisy for ordering Civil Servants back to the office while flirting with the idea of mandating flexible working for the rest of the workforce. In an opinion article for The Telegraph, she argued the state should not impose regulation on firms and trust employers and ... Continue reading

Annabel Denham, IEA Director of Communications, has written for The Telegraph on the high number of older people who left work during the pandemic and why further labour market regulation will not draw them back. "Before the pandemic, 60pc of employment growth by 2060 was expected to be filled by the over-65s – but now ... Continue reading

Annabel Denham, IEA Director of Communications, has written for The Telegraph on the derisory attitude that government has taken towards the self-employed in recent years. Annabel argues that this has alienated the self-employed, and threatens "the freelancing revolution". "So the pincer movement of higher taxes and greater regulation on the self-employed seems inevitable – and ... Continue reading

Julian Jessop, IEA Economics Fellow, has commented for the Daily Express with his calculations of the economic impact of self-isolation rules. Julian states that the decision to lift mandatory self-isolation is welcome and that the requirement to self-isolate "could still be reducing GDP by at least 1 percent, costing the economy £2billion every month." He ... Continue reading

Len Shackleton, IEA Editorial and Research Fellow, has commented on the right to disconnect, a principle that prohibits employers from contacting workers outside of normal office hours. In Belgium, there are plans to extend this right from the civil service, which will come into force on February 1st, to the private sector. Len argued that ... Continue reading

Julian Jessop, IEA Economics Fellow, has commented on the severe effects that another lockdown could have on the UK economy. Were another lockdown to be introduced to tackle the Omicron variant, Julian predicts that: "A renewed lockdown could knock at least 3 per cent off GDP. Monthly GDP is about £200bn, so this would be ... Continue reading