[HN Gopher] UK to be one of worst performing economies this year...
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       UK to be one of worst performing economies this year, predicts IMF
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2023-04-11 19:37 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | _hao wrote:
       | I've been based in London since 2018. One thing that I have
       | noticed in the past year (apart from the overall abysmal state of
       | the job market) is that IT salaries have actually went way down.
       | When I moved, I started at a higher salary than what's shown as
       | ranges for a lot of jobs now 5 years later. All London based
       | roles and I'm talking about positions across the board from
       | junior to senior and beyond. That in combination with COVID,
       | inflation, IR35 etc. has wrecked everything. Now, I'm between
       | roles and I'm actually thinking that it might be time to leave.
        
         | uxcolumbo wrote:
         | What's the job market like? You mean fewer jobs?
         | 
         | Where would you go next?
        
           | _hao wrote:
           | > What's the job market like? You mean fewer jobs?
           | 
           | Based on my anecdotal data it's not good. And yes - fewer
           | actual jobs. Last year I did some interviewing throughout the
           | year and it seemed things were picking up to before-COVID
           | level. After I left my previous place last September I got a
           | nice (although short) outside IR35 contract. That finished
           | just before New Year's. Since then it's been absolutely dead.
           | Most recruiters are just CV harvesting. A lot of the job ads
           | on LinkedIn, JobServe and others have been put on repeat for
           | months. It seems a lot of companies are waiting for recession
           | and have paused hiring. OR I just have had a bad luck, which
           | is possible of course. It should be noted the financial year
           | has just ended, so that period being Q4 for a lot of
           | companies with uncertain budgets played a part for sure, but
           | time will tell.
           | 
           | > Where would you go next?
           | 
           | There are a couple of options. Have a good friend in
           | Switzerland that can help me out if I go there. Can go back
           | to Bulgaria which has a very healthy IT market or might make
           | the jump across the pond. I haven't really decided, but I'm
           | thinking on the matter.
        
       | timellis-smith wrote:
       | The IMF are notoriously bearish on the UK economy. As the article
       | notes the IMF have already upgraded their outlook for the UK
       | economy once.
        
         | finikytou wrote:
         | ofc they are bearish IMF is pro europe so that they can coerce
         | states into doing what they want and uk liberated himself from
         | it.
        
           | kwere wrote:
           | uk was never a real member of eu, it entered the union with a
           | lot of less strings attached, the only country to get such
           | treatement.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_opt-
           | outs_from_E...
        
             | timthorn wrote:
             | The UK's opt outs were to rules brought in during its
             | membership, not prior to it's accession to the (then) EEC.
        
             | dogma1138 wrote:
             | Really?
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opt-
             | outs_in_the_European_Uni...
        
       | thinking001001 wrote:
       | Big surprise, a state-funded (kinda) organisation doesn't know
       | how to sell. Economics is all about sales, guys...
       | 
       | But the UK is getting a triple whammy from the financial fallout
       | of Covid-19, Ukraine invasion & fossil fuel prices, _and_ Brexit.
        
       | vikingerik wrote:
       | Be warned that every year-over-year number still needs to
       | consider the effects from the pandemic. The UK will seem to look
       | bad in 2023 because they recovered well in 2022 so the year-over-
       | year baseline is artificially high. Countries like Canada and
       | Japan that still had some pandemic restrictions dragging down
       | 2022 are the ones who will look good for 2023 over an
       | artificially low baseline. Both of those are an illusion of time-
       | shifting, displacing economic activity and demand from one year
       | into another.
       | 
       | For real numbers, compare 2023 to 2019 and see what it looks like
       | for a four-year time span. That's your real numbers here.
        
         | pwinnski wrote:
         | Your contention is that any and all poor performance is due to
         | the pandemic, not in any way related to Brexit?
         | 
         | I'm not sure 2022 looks quite as good as you're suggesting, but
         | it's clear the pandemic had a profound impact, certainly.
         | 
         | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/19/britain-eco...
        
           | tengbretson wrote:
           | > Your contention is that any and all poor performance is due
           | to the pandemic, not in any way related to Brexit?
           | 
           | Your interpretation of the parent post is mistaken. They are
           | saying that if you wish to try to isolate the effects of
           | Brexit from the effects of the pandemic (and the recovery) in
           | your analysis you should compare 4 years' data.
        
             | pwinnski wrote:
             | I'm not sure the initial comment lends itself to that
             | reading, but it isn't clear it lends itself to my initial
             | response either, so I'll switch over to your more
             | charitable reading. Thanks!
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | The U.K. had a lost decade from the Great Recession to present
         | [0][1]. There was a slight uptick in the 2017-19 period and in
         | 2022 but a lot of that was lost due to covid and political
         | instability respectively.
         | 
         | [0] -
         | https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/02/10/understanding-...
         | 
         | [1] -
         | https://www.ft.com/content/7968048a-3f7f-4cb0-8fa1-e10aff14b...
        
         | afcapel wrote:
         | Even discounting annual variance, the UK economy has been
         | performing very poorly since, at least, 2010.
         | 
         | > The UK economy is in the doldrums. The IMF has forecast it
         | will be the worst-performing large advanced economy this year.
         | But the problems stretch back much further.
         | 
         | > Average annual growth rates have more than halved since the
         | global financial crisis of 2007-08. The UK economy is no bigger
         | now than it was on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic at the
         | end of 2019 and the Bank of England does not expect to recover
         | that ground until 2026 at the earliest.
         | 
         | https://www.ft.com/content/dd195cda-ca12-48a6-9e8b-65a36e4e7...
        
           | rayiner wrote:
           | That's true of every big European country except Germany. The
           | UK, Italy, France, and Spain (four of the five largest
           | countries in Europe) have basically the same GDP now as in
           | 2008.
        
         | _joel wrote:
         | Ah yes, nothing to do with self-inflicted sanctions...
        
           | tick_tock_tick wrote:
           | It doesn't appear to be? Or at-least plenty of the EU managed
           | to do just as poorly without leaving?
        
           | vuln wrote:
           | It's just an illusion. Keep moving.
        
       | neximo64 wrote:
       | Is there someone with a graph of the estimates of UK economic
       | performance against what actually eventuated in the past few
       | years? A bit of a controversial topic but estimates after covid
       | have been terrible. Great time to be in a hedge fund.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-11 23:02 UTC)