The true story behind Britain’s unemployment figures

We were told this week that official unemployment jumped-up this week to over 2.5 million in Britain but this is a false figure in many ways. You are classed as employed if you do two or three hours a week that is so called employment. If you are self employed and sell a few things a week that is seen as employed. Also if you don’t sign on for Jobs seakers allowance JSA you are not picked up by the system so effectively not classed as unemployed even though clearly you are the government simply are not aware of you. All this is designed to mask the true figures of unemployment in this country. For a long time the official unemployment figures have defied gravity with the real economic situation seeming to not fit with the labour market figures. I’ve blogged before how much business’s m may be hoarding labour as the cost of re hiring and retraining would be extensive. As the crisis deepens and no sign of a recovery of any real magnitude is forthcoming these workers will be let go. unemployment could be as high as 6.3 million in the UK if a different counting measure was used, highlighting the true scale of joblessness, according to a new report from the TUC. The TUC said the higher figure - more than twice the official total - was revealed using an American measure, which includes people in part-time jobs because they cannot find full-time work and recent redundancies. The jobless total increased to 2.5 million last week and is expected to rise again in the coming months as the cuts deepen. But the TUC study suggested the actual number of unemployed people in the UK could be 6.3 million, which would be higher than any point since the early 1990s. Under-employment, which counts those doing temporary or part-time jobs because they cannot find permanent, full-time work, has risen to a record 1.9 million, according to the research. The TUC said temporary jobs were better than unemployment, but added that they tended to be low paid, insecure and offered little or no career prospects. Officials called on the Government to acknowledge the scale of the jobs "crisis" rather than repeat the "ill-informed" claim that there were plenty of jobs available. This jobs crisis is not confined to those out of work. Nearly two million people are being forced to take low-paid, insecure, short hours jobs because of the lack of proper full-time employment. This means people are taking home much less pay, which is putting a real strain on family budgets. "When ministers say there are plenty of jobs out there, they are ignoring the sheer numbers of people looking for work, as well as the suitability and location of the jobs available. "Rather than seek to blame unemployed people for being out of work, the Government should start helping them by putting proper resources into employment schemes. The report followed a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which showed that job prospects are set to worsen in the coming months as firms make workers redundant. A survey of 1,000 employers also revealed a further widening of a North-South divide in the jobs market. There are 600,000 more people working part-time who say they want to work full-time, compared to three years ago, said the organisation. Graeme Cooke, IPPR Associate Director, said: "Every month that goes by, the urgent need for the new Youth Contract continues to grow. It is now almost a year since the Future Jobs Fund stopped giving young people a job guarantee after a year of unemployment. "The next priority should be areas of the country experiencing the combination of both high unemployment and a low number of vacancies, while the prospects of those over 50 and unemployed for more than a year are also of serious concern. "The longer someone is unemployed, the less likely they are to ever return to work. Being out of work for more than a year can have a scarring effect, making it harder to get a job as well as having a negative impact on one's health and well-being. This means that even when employment starts to pick up again, they will find it hard to compete with other jobseekers and could find themselves permanently shut out of the jobs market.

Labours one nation workfare plus

Today the Labour party lead by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls has come out with one of their first proper policies they will be campaigning on in the next election. You may be thinking oh yes at last some labour policies that will challenge this government and its rhetoric and stand up for the poor. You’d be sadly mistaken. Labour as the socialist party predicted has capitulated to a Tory agenda a right wing neo liberal agenda too. Labour who were the party to introduce workfare when they were last in gov have gone further this time and have unveiled plans for what I’m calling “workfare plus”. adow chancellor said those earning more than £150,000 should only receive basic rate tax relief on their retirement savings. This would mean they could only get tax relief of 20 per cent on their savings, compared with 50 per cent today, and 45 per cent from April. It would cost high earners thousands of pounds each year. The money raised from the scheme, estimated to be at least £1billion a year, would be used to effectively pay private firms to hire the long–term unemployed. Mr Balls's pensions tax raid would be introduced in addition to Coalition plans to restrict annual retirement savings. It is one of Labour's first major tax announcements as the party comes under growing pressure to disclose its policy plans. Experts have warned that the proposed system risks ruining company pension provision as high–earning executives would close down their schemes for workers. Balls said: "When times are tough it cannot be right that we subsidise the pension contributions of the top 2 per cent of earners at more than double the rate of people on average incomes paying the basic rate of tax." Under the Labour scheme, the money raised would be used to fund a minimum–wage job for anyone who has been out of work for at least two years. There are currently 129,400 people aged over the age of 25 in that position. The long–term unemployed would be forced to take up the job offered to them or they would lose the right to claim benefits. "Government has a responsibility to help people into work and support those who cannot, but those who can work must be required to take up jobs or lose benefits as a result – no ifs or buts," Mr Balls said. "Tackling long–term unemployment will be a top priority for the next Labour government because we know from the 1980s that it has a scarring effect on individuals and communities, damages our economy and society, and builds up long–term costs for the taxpayer." The proposal is similar to one first announced by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in 2009. The scheme was scrapped by the Coalition, which instead introduced an annual limit on the amount that can be saved in a pension. However, Mr Balls is thought to now favour having both tax restrictions. In response Youth Fight for Jobs has been quick out of the blocks in opposing this Tory light idea and has put out the following statement on its website www.youthfightforjobs.com Paul Callanan, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education national organiser said: “Today Labour unveiled a new scheme to get the unemployed into work and training. This scheme will see people who have been unemployed for more than two years forced to take up a government provided job. Tellingly, Balls and Byrne are yet to say whether these jobs will come with a secure, long-term contract or whether this will be just another workfare style wheeze. Short-term or insecure contracts will leave the doors open for companies to use unemployed people as a source of cheap labour. When it comes to people seeking work, Labour have bought into exactly the rhetoric of lazy workshy scroungers as the Tories. Yet again politicians say they will stop benefits for those who don’t take up a job. YFJE says that if politicians are serious about getting people back into work then they would support our demands. Rather than cutting public sector jobs, the government should be making sure that people get the training and work they need. They could invest in socially useful public works to provide jobs and apprenticeships. And all of these jobs should offer a long term secure contract, paid a living wage. Today’s announcement from Labour demonstrates the fact that none of the mainstream parties have any answers. YFJE will continue campaigning against austerity and for a future for ordinary people. Youth Fight for Jobs was launched on 2009 in response to rising levels of youth unemployment. We have recently completed the 330 mile Jarrow March for Jobs. We were backed by the Unite, PCS, RMT, CWU, UCU, FBU, BECTU and TSSA trade unions. ENDS With extracts taken from the Daily Telegraph article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9779453/Labour-plans-pension-tax-raid.html

Unemployment the stark reality for many Socialism is the alternative

As part of tomorrow nights lead off at Harlow Socialist party I thought I’d give a brief over look of unemployment, the facts, the causes and the long term effects of unemployment. Currently there are 2.5 million people officially out of work in Great Britain with a million of those being young people. Unemployment statistics published show that the number of people who have been unemployed for more than one year is up 27,000 in the last three months, reaching a total of 887,000. The number unemployed for more than two years is 428,000, up 5,000. 'Back to work' schemes contracted out under the 'work programme' to companies such as A4e - which, despite being stripped of one this week, still holds government welfare contracts worth tens of millions of pounds - are supposed to help people who have been out of work for long periods. The figures also reveal that there are almost six unemployed people for every job vacancy in our economy. The number of vacancies fell by 7,000 to 457,000 in the three months to April. While employment in general increased, the number in full-time employment fell by 13,000 to 21 million. The number who work part-time but want full-time work was up 44,000 in the last three months to 1.3 million - a 149,000 increase since last year. There are also 590,000 people doing temporary work who want a permanent job, up 10,000 in the last quarter. A slight fall in the most recent set of unemployment figures hides the reality facing millions. The fall has only occurred because of an increase in part-time work. And the number of people claiming unemployment benefit is still going up. By the end of 2012 almost a million people will have been out of work for more than a year. There was a slight fall in the number of young people unemployed as well. And yet more young people than ever are now long-term unemployed - showing the failure of the Con-Dems' 'youth contract', aimed specifically at this group. Recent figures showed that the number of unemployed young people across Europe has increased by 50% since 2008. The long term affects of unemployment are staggering if you are long term unemployed as a young person you are far more likely to face unemployment again at an older age. The mental side of unemployment is huge too the number of people who are diagnosed with depression or other such illnesses is shocking when you look at the long term unemployed. We can also look at the under employed. The part time workers who are working part time jobs many taking on two or more just to make a decent wage to live off of. These workers are those who are class as under employed as wish to work longer hours for better pay but are not able to due to lack of jobs. The Socialist Party demands: • An end to job cuts, save our public services • Scrap all slave-labour workfare schemes, a day's pay for a day's work • A minimum wage of £8 an hour for all • Open the books - when company’s claim they can't afford to keep workers on, they must show us where the money has gone! • Massive investment in a programme of public works to create socially useful jobs See www.youthfightforjobs.com As unemployment soars Britain will still have the longest working week in the European Union. The previous New Labour government and now the con-deems today have consistently fought for the right to opt out of EU laws limiting the working week to a maximum of 48 hours. More than four million workers in Britain work longer than that each week in order to make ends meet. This is the lunacy of capitalism - millions thrown on the scrapheap while others work their fingers to the bone. By introducing a 35-hour week with no loss of pay - in other words sharing out the work - it would be possible to dramatically decrease the number of unemployed while simultaneously improving the quality of life of working class people. If this was combined with a massive increase in public services it would be possible to eliminate unemployment. This would allow us to develop a vastly better public transport system, build more housing, and train and hire more teachers, doctors and nursing staff. For example, up and down the country building workers are being laid off. Meanwhile there are five million people, two million households, who are desperate for social housing. Why can't the two be matched up with a massive high quality, affordable, council house building programme? This idea immediately raises the need to nationalise the major building companies under democratic control.