Good morning colleagues,

Here's a look at some of today's front pages.

The public sector pay issue has, for the moment, subsided, with just the letter pages playing host to the afterburn.

The pattern of global news has felt, I think we can all agree, unremittingly negative so far this year. Leaving aside the rise of demagoguery (and the neo-fascists surfing in its wake) and brutal global conflict, Irish economic news yesterday had more than a bit of silver lining.

The best of that news was that the unemployment rate has been revised down to a new post-crash low of 7.5%, with the latest CSO figures showing the number of people working in the State has reached its highest level in eight years, with 72% of all jobs created in the past year created outside Dublin. Meanwhile the latest global wealth survey from Credit Suisse says we’re getting richer. Even the ISEQ index of Irish shares is getting a post-Trump bounce (though remains below pre-Brexit levels).

Ironically, there will be some in Government who'll (understandably) want to shout all this from the rooftops ("let's keep the recovery going") but the unions might get notions and some others might say we can't go back to 'madness'/'bad old days'/'good old days' of 2008, which appears to be the line they're sticking with for now. 

Talk of the 'squeezed middle' has been around for a while, and the UK chancellor's autumn statement today is expected to contain some provision for what the PM has identified as 'Jams' ('Just About Managing'). Like the squeezed middle, there's some debate about who the Jams actually are, but Conor Pope's analysis earlier this week showed that an Irish family of four needs about €50,000 a year to survive (and that doesn't cover a holiday). But it's worth considering the experience of the precariat that live and work below that sort of income.

Blogger Shane Faherty and his young family struggled to survive as he completed his education and worked a series of precarious jobs, including a stint at the Amazon call sentre in Cork. He's since secured a fixed term contract with a public service agency. His blog "Confessions of a call centre academic", is your recommended long read today. Genuinely compelling.

Your Zen this morning somes from @StopFundingHate, who are brandjamming the John Lewis Christmas ad. Check it out. Explainer here.

Niall Shanahan