Can the West’s perplexing employment miracle continue?

IF YOU want to see what a world swimming in jobs looks like, visit Japan. At airports, people are employed to straighten suitcases after they tumble onto the baggage carousel. Men in uniform with fluorescent batons stand outside construction sites, and politely remind you that walking on to the site is probably not a good idea.

In department stores, smartly dressed women help you use the lifts. And in one of Tokyo’s best bars, a team of four people was involved in the preparation of your correspondent’s gin martini (from the freezer, of course, free-poured, and very dry).

Now the rest of the rich world is starting to look more Japanese. Since the heady post-lockdown days of 2021, gross domestic product (GDP) growth across the 38 countries of the OECD has slowed almost to a standstill, and in some countries is negative. Business confidence is below its long-run average. Yet there is not much sign of weakness in the labour market.