In the United Kingdom,1 a strong recovery has taken hold, with GDP having grown faster than both the EU and OECD averages between 2012 and 2015 (Figure 1.1). While the economy grew by 1.8% in 2016, down from 2.2% in the year before, the referendum vote on membership in the European Union (“Brexit”) in June 2016 has not had as strong a negative short-term impact on growth as many forecasters predicted, due in part to supportive monetary policy which mitigated the effect of increased uncertainty on consumer spending and business investment. Since 2012, the proportion of working-age Britons (age 15 to 64) who are employed has grown, and this percentage reached a record 73.3% in the first quarter of 2016, w'ell above the OECD average of 66.8%. Consequently, the unemployment rate fell to 5.0% in 2015, its lowest level since 2005 (Figure 1.2), and the Bank of England projects that the unemployment rate will remain at 5% until early 2019. At 30.7%, the share of unemployed who stay unemployed for a year or more (the longterm unemployment rate) is now below crisis levels, below the OECD average of 33.8%, and well below the EU average of 50%.