- Shorter working hours are offsetting the impacts of a bigger workforce
- Could wage pressures keep interest rates higher for longer?
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) net migration figures have provided plenty of material for politicians of all stripes. Take a look at the chart below. One interpretation is that net migration is extremely high: 745,000 in the last calendar year. But another is that it is now falling significantly: provisional estimates suggest that in the year to June 2023, net migration was 672,000. It is hard to draw a coherent economic narrative from the numbers, too. After all, if net migration is so high, why are workers so scarce?
