While unemployment hits five-year highs and ministers debate youth wage rises, there's a quieter milestone Britain just crossed: our economy has finally clawed back to where it was before the world fell apart.

GDP hit 33,121 in 2025 — the highest level since 2019. That might sound like cause for celebration, but the journey to get here tells a different story entirely. (Source: Office for National Statistics, GDP quarterly estimate)

In 2019, Britain's economy stood at a comparable peak. Then came Brexit uncertainty, followed by a global pandemic that knocked us sideways. By 2021, we'd tumbled to 31,442 — a fall so steep it wiped out years of growth in months.

The recovery has been anything but smooth. 2022 brought a modest bounce to 32,469, but 2023 actually went backwards to 32,400. That's the bit politicians don't like talking about — the year we lost ground while other economies pushed ahead.

2024 finally saw sustained progress at 32,591, setting up this year's breakthrough past 33,000. But here's the thing: six years to get back to where we started isn't exactly a victory lap. It's more like finally getting your car out of the ditch.

The human cost of those lost years shows up everywhere. The families who never recovered from 2020's job losses. The businesses that closed their doors in 2021 and never reopened. The young people entering a job market that spent half a decade playing catch-up rather than moving forward.

Compare this to historical norms, and the picture gets starker. In previous decades, six years of economic growth would have pushed GDP far beyond where we started. Instead, we've spent six years just getting back to square one.

That's the context missing from today's unemployment headlines. Yes, joblessness is rising, but it's rising in an economy that's only just found its feet again. The recovery isn't complete — it's barely begun.

The trajectory from 31,442 to 33,121 tells the story of modern Britain: resilient enough to bounce back, but fragile enough that bounce-back takes the better part of a decade. We've recovered, but recovery and progress aren't the same thing.

For the millions of Britons whose wages, job prospects, and living standards are still catching up to 2019 levels, hitting this GDP milestone feels less like an achievement and more like the starting line for what comes next.