Unemployment fall welcome but FCA report finds millions of Britons struggling in jobs that don't pay enough

Ministers will crow, but they shouldn't. Some 25m people have not protection if the roof falls in

Unemployment is a blight, but latest figures show it at its lowest level since 1975 (Getty)

The latest employment figures would seem to represent a little ray of sunshine poking through the dark economic clouds swirling over Britain.

How could anyone not welcome the fact that, at 1.4m, unemployment is at its lowest level since 1975?

That’s certainly what ministers will certainly say.

You can just imagine the Government reaction: Look at this, look at this! Pipe down you lot on the opposition benches, everything’s fine, people are working! Now, deck out the flags and let’s have a street party. We’ll get Big Ben to bong for the (Jacob Rees) Mog while we're at it.

You can probably guess by the tone that I’m about to rain on that parade, and play the role of the grinch that stole Christmas.

The figures are welcome, it's true. It is always better for people to be in work than to be out of it. The problem is that the jobs this country is creating aren’t paying enough for the people that do them to live.

That was handily underlined by a report from the Financial Conduct Authority, which estimated that as many as 4.1m people are in financial difficulty through having missed bills or credit payments.

The watchdog's study is an exhaustive one, covering 13,000 people aged 18 and above.

'Financial Lives' is intended to assist it with its oversight of the financial services industry, and to help it develop policies for how the latter should deal with vulnerable people.

However, in so doing, it also lays bare one of the nation’s most pressing economic issues. As the TUC keeps on saying: “Britain needs a pay rise.”

Inflation is running at 3 per cent. Wages are lagging way behind that. In many workplaces the annual wage round is a thing of the past, exacerbating the situation.

The 4.1m people in a real jam are most likely to be aged between 25 and 34 and have missed payments in three of the last six months.

However, the number of people that could be poised to join them is truly staggering. The study found that 50 per cent of UK adults - 25.6m people - display one or more characteristics that signal financial vulnerability.

They’re the sort of the people who are barely managing now, but who could get blown over in the event of a strong economic wind blowing over the country. They're the sort of people who lack things such as savings, or insurance cover, that might cushion them in the event of a downturn in their personal circumstances.

The falling living standards that Britain is experiencing will only increase their number.

Economists say that the situation won’t get better until the issue of Britain’s low productivity is addressed. Wages will only increase if that improves.

The OECD produced a smorgasbord of recommendations that could help in a report of its own yesterday. Foremost among them? An exit from Brexit.

The Government’s laughing Brexiteers had better be right with their claims that its dire predictions are wrong, and that the UK economy, and its people, have the ability to handle the country crashing out. An awful lot of them are going to get badly hurt if they wrong, even if they’re able to retain their jobs.

An awful lot of people are hurting badly now.