For Britons, poverty is now a bigger worry than unemployment

THE latest Economist/Ipsos MORI poll shows that British voters’ anxiety about the economy and unemployment is at its lowest in years, as growth and jobs have returned. Poverty is now a bigger worry than unemployment. Many of those new jobs are low-paid; 95% of the positions created in 2012-14 paid less than the (voluntary) “living wage”, which during this period rose from £7.45 ($11.81) to £7.85 per hour. George Osborne, the chancellor, aims to force wages up by raising the (compulsory) minimum wage for those over 25 to £9 per hour by 2020. Good news for low-paid workers—except those who will be laid off as a result of the higher wage-floor. The official independent forecaster reckons the higher minimum wage will result in 4m fewer hours of labour being offered per week by 2020. If so, worries about unemployment could overtake those about poverty once again.