A couple of years ago I was talking to a government minister about the UK’s productivity problem and how, unless it was fixed, the prognosis was pretty bad. Not a bit of it, he responded. Any government would give its eye teeth for strong employment and low unemployment numbers. Productivity would sort itself out.

I thought of that when looking at yesterday’s official figures. Employment growth in the latest three months was not as strong as a month ago, but with the total at a new record level who is complaining? The unemployment rate, at 3.9 per cent, stayed at its lowest since the mid-1970s. Real wages are rising. Productivity remains stagnant, but a government delivering that combination should have little to worry about.

Except