Britain’s reputation as a job-creating machine was burnished a little more this week. Official figures showed joblessness in the UK at its lowest for 42 years. Not since 1975, when cinema-goers were terrified by Jaws and the nation voted to stay in the European Community, has the unemployment rate been as low as 4.3 per cent.
The numbers are even more remarkable for women. Almost 71 per cent of women aged 16-64 are in work, the highest proportion since records began in 1971, when the figure was less than 53 per cent. Of the net new 379,000 jobs created over the past 12 months, 239,000 of them were taken by women.
Women are taking paid full-time jobs as never before, and they are bagging six
