More jobs is undeniably good news: it’s been good to see the UK’s employment rates return to record highs following one of the worst recessions in the nation’s history.

Yet successive Governments continue to focus far too much on the numbers of jobs, and far too little on what kind of jobs are being created. Our latest research, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, shows that focusing only on higher levels of employment risks missing the significant fall in real wages we’ve also seen.

Strikingly, there are now more working than workless households living in poverty.  So how has this all come about? And what does it mean for ordinary Britons, their cities, and the national economy?