=
×

Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Head To Head
Log In
Register
U-Know! Forum »
Tories and unemployment benefits
Log In to post a reply
59 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: Tories and unemployment benefits
Aug 22, 2008, 15:33
By subtracting the number of Job Seekers Allowance claimants from the number of vacancies, Vybik John came up with 229,800

However, there are far more people unemployed than that. And I'm not talking about those who can't/won't work. I'm using, as Jim did, the government's definition of 'jobless people who want to work, are available to work, and are actively seeking employment'.

The government's figure for that, cited by Jim, leaves a discrepancy of around a million people.

There's a few reasons for the difference between Vybik and Jim's numbers. Some unemployed people don't claim benefits, others can't. Then there's all the figure-fiddling scams that the Conservatives brought in during the period of high unemployment in the 80s and early 90s - only count one of a couple, don't count men over 60, don't count the ones you've coerced into Mickey Mouse training courses. Labour soundly jeered at these measures as they were brought in, then chose not to repeal them once in power.

There certainly are more who could work - the government says those who are of working age but economically inactive number about 8 million (mostly students, raising family or disabled) (Note: the figure I found is 4 years old, but as they say there's been no massive changes in previous years I don't see any reason why they'll have changed much since 2004).

But it seems that even if we exclude all those scamming sickness benefits, all those parents who could get part-time work and whatever, there are a million people properly unemployed.

Full employment is never coming back. It was demolished by automation and the huge influx of women into the labour market; neither thing is going to ever go away. So, there will always be more people than jobs. I don't see that compelling people to do the same activites we give to minor criminals - effectively criminalising long-term unemployment - is humane, fair or value for money.
In reply to:
Re: Tories and unemployment benefits (pooley)		 Replies:
Re: Tories and unemployment benefits (shanshee_allures)
Re: Tories and unemployment benefits (Vybik Jon)
Topic Outline:
U-Know! Forum Index