I don't believe it. That is, I don't believe that we are over the effects of the Great Financial Crisis  - the one that, according to Oz economist Professor Keen, 99.9% of professional economists didn't anticipate.

"The employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work) was 73.7%, the highest since comparable records began in 1971," chirrups the UK's Office of National Statistics in their November 2015 report.

Translated to block graph form, their data looks something like this:

The best in over 40 years? Really? Somebody with more patience and expertise please unpack these factoids for me.

The USA, on the other hand, appears to acknowledge that there has been some lasting damage. Look how the mirror image of employment and unemployment changed after 2009, in FRED's stats (with my graphic additions):

So the biggest economy in the world, with a significantly lower level of Total Credit Market Debt Outstanding than the UK's, is doing worse than the Brits?

Something is fishy about the January jobs report for the USA, says MarketWatch's Jeffry Bartash. But if he's right, I suspect it's even more rank for the UK market. There's a lovely old-fashioned, earthy American saying: "It stinks, on ice."