Alongside the many parallels, there is one difference between the route to India and digitalisation: the sea route was a discovery; digital infrastructure calls for a more targeted implementation and expansion of networks. There is already a highly developed political awareness of this, with France’s President Macron recently defining digital innovation as one of Europe’s core issues.
This measure is volatile, but the latest data painted a fairly weak picture, with average hourly earnings up by just 1 per cent over the past year. Graph 12  In summary, the overall picture from these various windows into the labour market is that despite the strong employment growth over recent times, there is still considerable spare capacity in the labour market.