It is tempting to believe that this balance of demand and supply for various types of workers is somehow unnatural, that were the economic decisions take by governments more fair and less tilted in favour of the rich and connected, then labour markets might look more like they did in the past, when employers hoovered up cities full of less-skilled workers to do jobs that paid respectable wages. But that is a pipe dream. Policy has in many ways shifted in favour of the 'haves' rather than the 'have nots', adding fortune atop good fortune. But the less comfortable position in which workers now find themselves is mostly due to structural change in the economy. The proof is in the paycheques: which, for a remarkably large share of the working world, have scarcely grown over the last fifteen years.