A poll conducted in the first half of April by Ipsos-MORI on behalf of The Economist shows that as the UK narrowly avoided a triple-dip recession, half (49%) of the public mention the economy as among the most important issues facing Britain today. Concern about the economy peaked at 71% when the coalition government came to power in 2010 and has since fallen by 22 percentage points. This fall is more acute among those aged 55-64 (from 81% to 50%).

Unemployment worries have crept up again since our last poll, following data showing that the total number of workers counted as unemployed increased by 70,000 to 2.56 million between December and February. This is the largest quarterly rise since Autumn 2011. Britain, which has one of the world’s most flexible labour markets, also has around 1m “NEETs”: not in employment, education or training.