When Theresa May spoke at the CBI conference this week, the focus was understandably on Brexit and whether she could build up a sufficient head of steam to get her EU withdrawal agreement through parliament. The prime minister, however, found time to laud what she described as Britain’s “jobs miracle”.

She was right to do so. Compared with the grim predictions in 2010, the start of austerity, the jobs market has delivered a miracle. Public sector employment is down by about half a million, but overall employment is up by 3.2 million. The private sector has created seven times the number of jobs lost by the public sector. The rate of job creation has slowed since the vote and flattened this year, but has mainly