Author: Blake Anderson

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Workers in England are more likely to be overqualified than in any other advanced economy in the OECD, according to a study that raises questions about the opportunities available to British graduates.More than one-third of employees aged 25 and over reported having higher education levels than required for their job, according to a once-a-decade survey published by the organisation on Tuesday. The rate has risen from around 30 per cent in 2012 to more than 37 per cent in 2023, the highest…

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. If you’re not a subscriber, you can still receive the newsletter free for 30 daysGood morning. Pat McFadden delivered a good, thoughtful speech on the “how” of public sector reform, citing recent examples of best practice that he thought the government could learn from. Equally importantly, he recognised that for governments to innovate they had to be prepared to fail.If Labour can deliver on this, it will be exciting stuff that benefits all governments, but I don’t…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Construction equipment rental group Ashtead has announced plans to move its listing from London to New York, in another blow to the UK stock market.In a statement on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 group said: “The board has concluded that the US market is the natural long term listing venue for the group” and that moving its primary listing to New York was in its best interests. Almost all the group’s operating profit comes from North America, a key area of growth for the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK financial regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.MPs should look into the phenomenon of social media “finfluencers”, as they seek to protect consumers from ill-advised investments, the new chair of the Treasury select committee has said.Dame Meg Hillier, a Labour MP, wants to invite social media personalities who peddle investment schemes or offer financial advice online for an evidence session, to understand how they operate within existing regulation.The topic is likely to be raised during a hearing with Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Nikhil Rathi on Tuesday.In May,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The price of taking the High Speed 2 rail link into London’s Euston and building a new station on the site has risen to more than £7.5bn, according to confidential government documents that throw new light on the spiralling costs of the project. In early 2023, the National Audit Office nearly doubled its estimate of costs to £4.8bn for the new HS2 station at Euston alone — excluding other elements of the project including the tunnels and the redevelopment of the existing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Those visiting Christie’s in London this week have been treated to an unusual spectacle. For the first time since it moved to its King Street address in 1824, the auction house’s gallery is not showcasing paintings or sculptures but dinosaurs: three prehistoric skeletons that it estimates are worth up to £13mn.The skeletons of a stegosaurus and an adult and young allosaurus date back about 150mn years and were excavated and reconstructed by the seller, the Swiss-German company Interprospekt. “It’s so exciting. This…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Global Economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Does the arrival of migrant workers depress the wages of those who are already in the country, or doesn’t it? For years, mainstream economists have told people who worry that migrants are undercutting wages that they are wrong. Yes, they have said, new people increase the supply of labour, but they also increase the demand for goods and services, so in the end it more-or-less washes out. The theory is backed up with a large number of empirical studies which have found…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Poorer students are being priced out of going to university in London because spiralling rent costs are outstripping the value of maintenance loans.An analysis of student housing costs in the UK capital found that average student rent of £13,595 in 2024-25 exceeded the maximum loan for students in London of £13,348 for the first time. The findings will fuel demands for the government to offer more support for poorer students who are facing a mounting “cost of learning crisis” that is putting them…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Hiring has fallen more sharply in the UK than in other major economies over the past year as worries over weak growth and rising wage bills lead some businesses to cut headcount.UK job postings were 13 per cent below their pre-pandemic level and 23 per cent lower than a year ago, according to figures published on Tuesday by the job search site Indeed — a bigger retrenchment than in any of the other markets it covers, including the US, France, Germany, Canada…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Birmingham city council has reached an agreement with unions over an equal pay dispute that will be significantly less than the £650mn-£760mn estimate of historic claims that tipped the authority into bankruptcy last year, according to people close to the talks.The council, the largest local authority in Europe in terms of the number of people it serves and services it provides, is expected to announce the agreement as early as Tuesday, forestalling litigation by the GMB and Unison unions.Three people familiar with…