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Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for October 13th in 3:01 minutes.

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Today's big stories

The number of UK workers was back to pre-pandemic levels last month
The UK might be about to have an Evergrande moment of its own – Read Now
The European Union’s first green bond offering saw record demand

Close Call

What’s Going On Here?

Data out on Tuesday showed that UK employment is back to pre-pandemic levels, as the country’s do-gooders commit to staying six pints apart at all times.

What Does This Mean?

Plenty of UK companies have been forced to let staff go in the last 18 months, with the country’s hospitality sector hit particularly hard. But British pub-goers are nothing if not dedicated to their local, and they’ve been more than happy to get the sector back on its feet. That helped boost the number of employed Brits by a record 207,000 last month. There are still over a million job vacancies still up for grabs too, which might be no bad thing: the government ditched economic support for a million workers last month, and they might need those posts pronto if their pandemic-bruised employers can’t afford to keep them on.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming in: Brexit doesn’t play nice.
The jobs market isn’t all rainbows, mind you: there’s still a shortage of lorry drivers and food sector workers, both of which are vital to a sustained economic recovery. And while the government has brought in measures to allow foreign workers to fill the roles, that’s only a temporary fix. Businesses, then, are asking for those measures to be extended, as well as calling for more investment in training up UK workers so they can play their part.

For markets: To raise or not to raise.
This update might prove to the Bank of England that the country’s recovery is coming along nicely, which could encourage it to press ahead with plans to raise interest rates. But analysts aren’t convinced: they reckon price rises are putting enough pressure on spenders, and that any rate increases could derail the recovery. That might be why those same analysts think the British pound will fall by 4% before the year’s out.

You might also like: How to protect your investments from an uptick in interest rates.

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Analyst Take

Is The UK About To Have An Evergrande Moment?

Hermione Taylor, Analyst

What’s Going On Here?

The energy crisis is a global problem, sure, but the UK is more at risk than most.

Manufacturing, after all, is so tightly bound up with the success of the country’s economy that any one company’s collapse could be catastrophic.

So when the country’s steel, cement, and chemicals execs all met up last week to warn that they’re at risk of shutting down, it’s probably worth taking them seriously.

But as with all these things, it’s not all doom and gloom: there are silver linings amid all the industrial smog.

So that’s today’s Insight: why the energy crisis could be a moment of reckoning for the UK, and how you might be able to profit even if it is.

Read or listen to the Insight here