ABSTRACT
Starting in 1993, the British labour market moved steadily upwards to a steady state with high male and female employment, low unemployment, low inflation and relatively high productivity growth. Male and female employment in the five years prior to the Great Recession (2003–07) were 79% and 70%, respectively, unemployment rates were 5.6% and 4.8%, inflation averaged 3% and labour productivity growth averaged nearly 2%. Moreover, these rates were virtually constant during this period, and there had been very little change in them since 1993.
