On the face of it, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have just released great news on unemployment. The rate – against all expectations – has fallen from 5.2 per cent to 4.9 per cent. Radio 4’s Today programme welcomed the ‘surprising’ news. But this is no good news story.

To be classed by statisticians as unemployed you have to be actively seeking work. If you’re not then you’re put in the ‘economically inactive’ category. And that’s the bad........

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