Politicians could not control the economy, a charge Conservatives used to hammer the Left. Labour, famously, was not working. On the internationally accepted measure, unemployment may still be half a million higher and there may be more people who want work even if they are not searching. The Government has done nothing to disturb this pattern of employment generation and plenty to enhance it. A range of initiatives have signalled an inventiveness about lowering unemployment that is good to see.
Ministers deserve more credit than their critics allow.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor have now been emboldened, embracing full employment as a policy aim with a social democratic confidence that would be equally welcome across a range of Labour's policies. From now on, however, progress will be harder. Financial turmoil in Japan and the US along with higher oil prices will slow the economy down. Moreover, the hard core of unemployed are harder to reach, and the skills they need to succeed in the labour market are harder to teach. A generation of men over 50, mainly unskilled, have no intention of working again - and if they did, the new skills along with social confidence and good presentation that are essential in today's service sector are difficult if not impossible to acquire so late in life.