AIBU to think this is a 'Get on your bike' moment from the Government?

[chomalungma]

Apparently there's 8 million economically inactive people in the UK.

Ok - so some of them are students, carers, long term ill, SAHP etc...

So maybe 20% of them are probably capable of work.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/19/immigration-firms-will-need-to-train-more-uk-workers-says-priti-patel

So that's good because there are going to be loads of vacancies to fill in the UK and UK workers will have the advantage.

Let's hope the jobs are in the same place as the economically inactive people are...or will it be a 'Get on your bike' to get a job future for people - regardless of house prices and the practicalities of moving to the job.

Certainly going to be an interesting few years.

My MIL used to work for a large supermarket chain. She lived in an area of high immigration. There were many non UK EU employees there on minimum wage. There was no reason why UK people couldn’t work there. EU employees were not stealing their jobs.

If the supermarket has to pay more they will just put the food prices up, which will also be higher due to Brexit too. So people will possibly be worse off even with a higher wage.

Sorry, I see it was Priti Patel not the OP who referenced economically inactive people. I suppose there are some economically inactive people who can't be bothered with work because it doesn't pay enough to interest them. But I doubt there are many.

And a lot of the companies that will probably suffer are the small family run companies that try to compete with the large companies, that pay their taxes as don’t have the resources to take advantage of tax avoidance schemes and where the owners have put lots of their own money in and not taken out huge bonuses.

I'm a remainer/rejoiner but in light of the current situation with Brexit what other solution do you suggest OP?

There's no contradiction between being outside the EU and having visas specifically for shortage areas such as care and agricultural workers, indeed we're apparently going to be making some provision for the latter.

It’s a get out of our country moment from the government.
Until it inevitably goes to shit.
Then it’ll be someone else’s fault.
Then Johnson will get re-elected because the British, by and large, are stupid enough to vote for him.
Then education will be absolutely smashed - tories in power don’t want a clever/educated workforce.
Then we’ll all die anyway.

It will be interesting to see if the unemployed British people are where the jobs are that are not going to be filled by people who can't get enough points on this system.

If the businesses in the South East can't find employees because the South East is at 'full employment', then where are they going to get those employees from if they don't qualify under the points system?

And in places of higher unemployment, then that will be a good thing regarding competition for work.

It's certainly going to be interesting.

I find it hilarious that people genuinely seem to believe that Brexit will cause employers to have to start paying decent wages, and that these jobs will suddenly fill up with previously unwilling UK workers.

Far more likely what we'll see is the gradual erosion of protections for those in casual work, further punitive reductions in welfare, and UK workers forced into jobs that are paying less than what the equivalent EU migrant was earning doing the same thing prior to the end of FoM.

How people can't see that this is one of the chief aims of the Brexit-cheerleaders all along is baffling to me.

Yes, we're not going to get better conditions for employees when we could just do a Workfare mark 2 instead. Because we're getting right wing Brexit.

The alternative to increasing wages in many industries is increased automation. Then nobody will have a job except at the equipment manufacturers, many of whom are in China.

If some of these jobs are in hospitality such as hotels, could they not house some of their workers? It would make minimum wage much more appealing if you got free London housing out of it. House them where? A whole family living in a hotel?

Everything is going to cost more so these mythical higher wages won't go far. Fruit farms etc will go bust due to shortage of workers so more will be imported - prices will be even higher if we see import tariffs. Restaurants/hotels etc will cost more if wages are higher so fewer people will use them. The care sector is screwed, although I imagine fairly soon this will become a "special" area where immigration controls are waived. There's already a crisis with the aging population so care workers will probably increasingly be employed directly from places like the Philippines, so they'll meet the job offer criteria but will be exempted from things like minimum salary or language skills out of sheer desperation.

In fact, that's probably what will happen in many sectors longer term. There's a lot of loud noise from the government at the moment in seeming to bow to this idea that we all hate immigrants, but once it's apparent that there aren't enough British labourers or hotel cleaners they will make more and more "exemptions", with employers likely to recruit increasingly from parts of Asia rather than Eastern Europe.

The care sector is already 140,000 workers down on what we need and wages haven't risen. They're not going to rise when we lose all the EU workers either. For a start, care already costs £800 a week. To pay the carers more, the cost of care needs to go up so that 'fair wage' that's being shouted about is coming out of your pocket. The population is ageing so this will only get worse.

We import most of our food and veg and that is going to become more complicated so the food will become more expensive. Anything we grow in the UK will become more sought after so prices are going to go up even before workers get a 'fair wage'. Supermarkets won't swallow this cost so that too, is coming out of your pocket.

People won't shift their arses from their sofas to work.

We've raised several generations of workshy scroungers who think they are entitled to an equivalent income of a working family.

No hope looking at any of them.

I suppose I fall into the 'economically inactive' bracket. Retired in my 40's and am a SAHW.
Paid my taxes and now do all housework and cooking whilst DH works his self employed business . Works for us 🤷‍♀️

You workshy scrounger @Flymetothetoon !

Just a post to say those in social housing cant live away to work
They would lose their social flat as it would be classed as abandoned. And no doubt it would be the same Tory voters castigating them for not taking these jobs who would be the first to phone the HA to report said flat as empty.

Employers have been taking the piss for a couple of decades now, (by employing cheap foreign labour,) and the wages have been kept down BECAUSE of it
Anyone who says anything different is deluded, or lying

Rubbish! the global financial crash in 2008 was used by employers to keep wages down, justified by very low interest rates and inflation.

The govt also put in public sector wage freezes too, another reason private sector employers kept wages down... but how funny how none of this mattered when it came to Directors pay......

Just a post to say those in social housing cant live away to work

And if you want to move somewhere to work, there is the awkward matter of getting affordable housing in that place....

Very few can move around this country easily due to the housing problem. The people they want to take low paid jobs can't afford the transport either. Geographical mobility across regions is stalling. What a total mess this is.

You say that as if most economically active people haven’t done that already. Surely moving for work is the norm these days?

Surely moving for work is the norm these days

Is it? It might be for some people - but I am sure there are many people who would like to stay in the area they grew up in and in the community they are a part of.

I think it might be a lot easier for some people to move for work than for other people.

Moving for work is a lot less common than it used to be. As I said, inter-regional geographical mobility has reduced (although stalled was an exaggeration I'll admit). And no one, certainly not people who might be rather economically-challenged if they're inactive, is going to move across the country specifically to do a care workers job on minimum wage.

Former workshy scum here!
Doing things like looking for STEM work only to find no-one wants to employ me. Or something looks great - move across the country for a 12 month fixed-term contract with no extension. Or that Kent and Peterborough are apparently within the West Midlands...
Or that other jobs don't want to pay me my worth or make excuses not to employ me as creeping HR people out is my superpower and that they don't want anyone who'll rock the boat.

PS I was never officially unemployed since I never got as far as being able to register myself as such.

I've come to the conclusion that I will probably ride my bike onto that ferry when my current funding runs out and they don't see sense and give me some more.

Here's an article that sets out why the assumption that there are '8 million economically inactive people' who are just available to work is wrong: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-uk-home-office-construction-farming-work-a9345151.html

But then this is Priti Patel we are talking about - never the sharpest tool in the box.

So... conscription? Somehow these 8 million economically inactive folk are managing on some other income. So they have to be deprived of that income... right? Or compelled under penalty of law to do the low skill jobs. Without conscription, why would they take these jobs? Or the jobs have to pay more... like 50% more? Would you all pay 50% more for your pre-pack sarnies, local strawberries or to keep granny safe in her care home?

To become caterers, carers, fruit pickers... I mean, won't it be great to have a resentful army preparing our food & caring for our treasured elderlies. What could possibly go wrong?