Workers kept their jobs but one third faced nominal wage freezes or cuts

13 Jun 2013 02:47 PM

This time really is different. The period since the recession began in 2008 has seen the longest and deepest loss of output in a century and the largest public sector deficit since the Second World War. But it has also been a period when:

Real wages have fallen by more than in any comparable five year period;

Productivity levels have dropped to an unprecedented degree;

Employment has dropped by much less than in previous recessions;

Inequality has fallen – in sharp contrast to the 1980s recession and its aftermath;

Older workers and consumers have been much less affected than younger generations.

These are among the conclusions of new analysis by IFS researchers
published recently in a special issue of the IFS’s journal Fiscal Studies and in an
accompanying IFS working paper.

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