“Considering there are jobs why aren’t they working? There are jobs out there so there is no excuse not to work. Cleaning, care work I’m a professional but would clean I’d i couldn’t find a job in my field”
It’s not as simple as x no of jobs vs y number of unemployed.
Although that’s certainly, as myself and others have pointed out, a very real factor, there are far more people jobseeking than there are vacancies.
It’s also whether people have the skills and ability to do the jobs available. And that includes jobs traditionally seen as “menial”.
As has already been said MANY times and as someone who was a manager in elderly care for some years care work requires a very particular aptitude and skills it is absolutely NOT a job just anybody willing to (let ALONE those unwilling have you never heard of elder abuse?!) can do and to imply it is not only is insulting to care workers but to those they care for who are usually very vulnerable and definitely don’t deserve anything but the most committed and skilled staff.
“I've worked with disengaged carers and it's shit.” Totally after, even carers who hate certain aspects of the job are by far better than those that are indifferent. The indifferent ones cause the most issues.
Even cleaning, I have ocd it’s the one job I absolutely could not do I find it stressful enough dealing with my own shit (literally!) to make someone like me do such a job would be cruel and ridiculous. There are also people I know who wouldn’t be able to do this job due to issues like severe allergies or physical limitations, and quite honestly I’d say (and my friend who owns her own commercial cleaning company I’m sure would agree) that this job also requires skills in terms of assessing a job, working out how best to do it in the time available, knowing which products to use etc indeed there was a thread on mn recently where an op and I think their dh had foolishly thought they could go into business as cleaners, volunteered their services to some friends and promptly very expensively wrecked friends granite worktops by using the wrong product.
I’ve over the years heard a few tales like that via being an army brat (when army families move out of quarters they have to be spotlessly clean when “handed over” to the army. Most do it themselves which can lead to shocking mishaps but even more shocking is the number of supposed “professional” cleaners employed for this task that have wrecked stuff, set things on fire or caused the creation of noxious fumes! My aforementioned friend with her own company has also regularly been called in to fix things previous cleaning companies have messed up!)
As for us having supposedly low unemployment within Europe I’d like to know if those stats have been calculated in the same way for each country compared or if its from stats collected from the individual countries and likely calculated in totally different ways so not a true comparison.