UK minimum wages over time, comparison with other countries

 

1. This is an important chart from the resolution foundation, labour market outlook, Q2 2024.

Investment and uncertainty

 Uncertainty holds back business investment: see Brexit for example.  The November Bank of England Monetary Policy Report, p.20, shows this chart: 

and says

"Measures of business confidence have recovered a little over recent months but many remain

weak, and contacts of the Bank’s Agents note that investment intentions are subdued (ASBC

– November 2025 and Chart 1.8). Contacts report that weak demand and elevated

uncertainty, including ahead of the Autumn Budget, may be causing firms to delay investment.

Consistent with that, the proportion of respondents to recent DMP Surveys reporting that the

overall level of uncertainty facing their businesses is high or very high has been around its

highest level since end-2022."

What has happened to NHS capital per worker?

 1. a New report "From Diagnosis to Delivery" by Allas et al has, on p.45 some information.

2. The figure is a figure relative to other countries. I don't put much store by that, what matters is how productive we are with the capital not how much we are spending.

3. The figure below says NHS capital per worker has fallen by 36% in real terms since 2010. i think this is a capital stock per worker figure.

4. The ONS data tell a different story.  That is capital services per worker.  If you go to 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/publicservicesproductivity/datasets/publicserviceproductivityestimateshealthcareengland

you can download the 1996-2023 data

from which you get that since 1996 capital has grown 7.6% faster than labour, but from 2010, -20%.  So more capital per worker over the whole period.