Graph of the week - Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK and EU

The above graph is from a report from the Office of National Statistics that looks at poverty and social exclusion across the EU. The graph shows the percentage of each country's population that is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

It is worrying that the UK, which is third richest country in the EU after Germany and France is only better than the EU average. It seems we are "all in it together."

For more info download the whole report here.

Graph of the week - In work poverty in the UK

This graph from the Office of National Statistics report on Poverty and Employment Transitions in the UK and EU, 2007-2012 clearly shows that despite the UK being the third richest nation in the EU (after Germany and France) we rank 16th for in-work poverty and are only just bellow the EU average.

This is a statistic the government should be profoundly ashamed about.

Happy International Women's Day - but we could do better in the UK

Today is International Women's Day and you can find out more here. For the past nine years the World Economic Forum have produced a report with the Global Gender Gap (GGG) Index for countries all across the world.

The 2014 report is now available and it does not really make good reading for a rich and well developed nation like the UK, which is ranked 26 out 142 countries. The UK is unsurprisingly behind the Scandinavian countries which are known for their good gender equality, but the UK is also behind countries like  Nicaragua, Rwanda, Latvia, Burundi, Ecuador, Slovenia and Bulgaria. The full rankings can be found here.

The UK is ranked 48 out of 142 countries for wage equality.

The detailed gender equality analysis for the UK can be found here and is shows we still have a long way to go to get full gender equality.

Graph of the week - The Rise of Zero Hours Contracts

Zero hours contracts have been in the news a lot over the past few months, and the government have been claiming economic success with more people in employment. But is this telling the whole story?

We grabbed the data from the ONS website and knocked up a quick graph. In 2013 there was a big jump of over 300,000 additional people on zero hours contracts. So these people may be off the unemployment register, but they are not in decent, secure full-time employment.

Hardly the job creation miracle that some are claiming.