Summary: David Goodhart considers whether the declining status of basic jobs can be halted and even reversed. Successive governments have prioritised widening access to higher education to try to drive social mobility, without giving much thought to the impact this has on the expectations of young people who, for whatever reason, are not going to take that path. But even in a knowledge-based economy, low-skilled work survives. Offices still need to be cleaned, supermarket shelves stacked, and care home residents looked after. The best employers know how to design these jobs to make them more satisfying. Are politicians finally waking up to the problem?
