Where are all the workers? This is, increasingly, a puzzle. On the face of it, it’s good news that the unemployment rate is still falling — it’s just hit a 48-year low in Britain. But this obscures something less positive: increasing numbers of people are dropping out of the labour market altogether.

The jobs “miracle” was routinely trumpeted by Boris Johnson’s government, and it’s certainly a good time to be a plumber, or a teenager who can pull a pint. There are still as many posts vacant as there are people looking for work, despite employers having scaled back a bit as the economy has got choppier. But the strains are taking their toll: baggage is piling up at airports, while builders and architects are closing their books to new contracts. Some executives I speak to are almost praying for a recession.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, astonishingly, despite the cost of living crisis, average weekly hours worked are still not back at their pre-pandemic levels. In the three months to July, there was a small fall in overall employment.