AIBU to think redundancy crisis is not getting enough media coverage?

I loved the old job centre format, its hard to explain how easy it was when no computers were involved.

You saw tons of jobs on bits of paper, on boards , that you would never thought to search for if it was online, but you know you could do it. Ring the number, came in for an interview that afternoon 😭.

You clearly don't know anyone who works in Local Government. We have been losing people to 'restructurings' for many years now. Every couple of years another round of ' restructuring' comes along. So I know a great many people made redundant. Latest was a colleague in her 30s. Whole teams have gone this way, as well as colleagues within teams.

I do know people in their late 50s being made redundant and getting pay offs. I think in previous generations they might have taken retirement by now.

People could literally walk into the job centre and be sent for an interview and get a job the same day. An older woman at my work had her first job there and that was standard.
And the poor kids today have to live in a world with the internet/right to work checks etc, so that will never happen for them (even if the jobs were available)

I would repeat the question of the previous poster- is there a crisis? You have to inform the government if you want to make more than 20, presumably so they can mange this to avoid a crisis.

And age definitely plays it's part once over 50 it's tough.
The older workers seen in supermarkets have generally been there donkeys years and new starts tend to be under 30.
They have the occasional 50+start but it's rare.
My DW has worked in a supermarket 18 years.

The harm to the economy this Labour government did under Starmer/Reeves is only going to grow under unfunded Andy. Sick pay from day one and all the rest mean that dismissing under capability is a hugely long and expensive process. Smaller firms without a dedicated HR department will look at the Byzantine employment law around capability, the weeks and weeks of meetings and adjustments and more meetings and appeals they must hold to terminate a poor worker and of course they will opt for redundancies.

The only positive thing that can be said about this lot is that they are ensuring we will not suffer a Labour government for a generation.

it's not just engineering, but the UK is a desert, and universities don't attract enough people either.

It's only going to get worst

Unemployment fell in the most recent 3m reported (ONS) to 4.9%.

It peaked at 5.3% during Covid.

Prior to that the last big spike was 2011 8.5%.

1992 spike 10.7%.

There are well-documented problems with the Labour Market Survey, which generates this data. Nevertheless, the evidence is that unemployment isn't at a level that would mean it is in the news every day.

One of the issues with it is it doesn’t capture the large amount of unofficial employment in hidden economic activity

it' only part of the story, but I am amazed no-one was waiting for the consequences from Brexit. Companies have steadily relocated, business have moved, people have rushed to get European passports and use them, many businesses have simply refused to keep trading with the uk. It's just too complicated and not worth it they just stopped,, often it doesn't go any further than that. So overseas businesses may have lost clients here, obviously, but they have also closed markets.

What did people think was going to happen?

And that's only ONE of the reasons things come crashing.

I know, I was using that as an example of what people advise on here when a poster says My DH was made redundant 6 months ago and can't find work in his industry .
The find any job brigade forget that being over qualified is also a thing.

@Doingtheboxerbeat The any job bit such as Asda etc is a fallacy these jobs are hard to land and also get hundreds of applicants and are nearly always 30hrs and way under.

Was only a few years ago that it was a big issue that too many 50+ had left the workplace - now trying to get a job as a 50+ is almost impossible. It’d be staying in my job if I worked there.

Still impactful on the individual and still part of the overall redundancy issue as per the op.

It is very industry specific.

I work in recruitment and the engineering sector I work in is crying out for more staff, there is a huge huge staff shortage.

I wonder if he works where I did. Huge restructure in feb that laid off the whole of software engineering.

There is a higher volume of redundancies full stop due to AI, I would think the troublesome ones make up a small number of these.

All the staff in tesco and sainsburys are people who should be retired! Theres a huge problem.

We're due a war soon. Things cant carry on like this.

I faced my first recession/redundancy at 19 , in 1990, but since there was still plenty of pubs/clubs and bars (pre smoking ban) , high Streets full of shops (pre online shopping) , it took me about 10 seconds to find another job. At 19.

Where are all these jobs for 19 year old now? Amazon warehouses can't employ all of them.

I haven't even included the AI of it all.

It's a problem partly caused by automated work and partly because of firms being charged more N.I. to employ people.

My DH’s entire software development dept was laid off in February. They made such a complete hash if it that he’s pursuing them for unfair dismissal. Add to that there’s a very difficult job market atm. He’s applied for numerous jobs in his field of the sort that a couple of years ago he'd have walking into (it’s not an issue of tech moving on either, he’s completely up to date including AI use for coding), but now despite being 98% perfect for the role they’re niggling on minor points only for him to see that they’re still advertising the same bloody role months later. We’ve even given this a name now, ‘unicorn hunting’.

They're not following the right processes for dealing with conduct/capability etc which is supposed to give people chance to improve.

(Im neutral on this, it is ridiculous some of the hoops employers have to jump through to dismiss, but a sham redundancy isnt the lawful way is all im saying)