Get Britain Working is totally missing the current employment crisis economy

[myotheraccountsa]

Just read the BBC article about rate of UK unemployment up to 5% - the gvmt saying people should question the accuracy of this data, but also that it ties into their campaign to "Get Britain working".

I am mind blown. Are they not seeing what I'm seeing? This isn't an issue with people on benefits etc -

There's a huge new tidal wave of very highly qualified people who have been merrily working for all their lives, now made redundant or upon leaving theor jobs literally cannot find anything. There's a Mid-Senior level crisis all over LinkedIn - 500+ people applying for every 1 job. People searching for over a year with hundreds of applications, interviews, and getting nothing. Basically being told that nowadays the only way to get a job is through networking - it's back to who you know, not what you know.

And then the government act all surprised and like they haven't taxed businesses on workers to the point that they're cutting heads wherever they can? Or that they are oblivious to this and everyone should "get back to work" like it's easy for an ex-SVP to persuade the local chippy they're the ideal employee (even if they're desperate and would willingly work there).

Madness.

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack

I wasnt trying to be disingenuous by asking the sector. My son is in work and thinking of going to university but he isnt sure of the value. He can see a shortage in construction, but if its not sector specific thing he can just keep developing his soft skills and not worry so much.

My dh also recruits engineers and they dont get good applications always. Relocation is a massive issue as we are in the south east and people think they dont want to trade thier 3 bed detached for a 2 bed terrace, if they are moving from elsewhere and arent used to south east housing. Relocating is much more fun if you head somewhere cheaper.

What we feel is lacking is more to do with communication, interpersonal skills and attitudes etc - things which are absolutely essential for our work but not so easy to train people

I suspect this is your problem - recruiting from a pool of people that can't train into the role. If that's your baseline requirement then I'm guessing those people are already ensconsed.

It sounds like you are dealing with (difficult customers/claimants/disadvantaged people) types.

So much of education and office based work is now task/outcome-driven and communication reserved for the water cooler on subjects like Strictly.

Working with people with empathy/sympathy is hard and involves caring - i dont think people want to do that much these days.

The work life balance seems more geared to bringing your life into work rather than bringing your work home.

FWIW we stopped recruiting - fed up listening to new graduates who thought they could do (and be paid top $ for) a job because they'd done a course in it rather than accepting that the course was the baseline for starting to learn the job properly.

Thanks for clarifying. I think it's a really tough choice for young people now as to whether or not university is worth the investment. It was a no brainer for my dd because she wants to go into medicine, but I think it's a lot less clear cut for young people who want to go into fields that don't necessarily require a degree. Your ds should bear in mind that whatever he decides now doesn't have to be stuck to forever.

I think soft skills are always hugely valuable in almost any field, so definitely worth developing those - it is that side of things that we currently find to be lacking in many candidates to be honest.

I am not in the South East as we chose to move away for the very reasons that you describe, but to be honest, I think it's tough everywhere right now.

This worries me so much. I have an 18 year old son who thankfully went for an apprenticeship rather than university & he seems to be enjoying it. I've really tried to support him to be an 'all rounder' rather than just focus on good academic results e.g sport, job in a pub since he was 16, work experience at our local homeless team etc & I just hope this pays off for him & his future working life. I worry about A.I & how this impacts the future for our young people.

Aftermath of Brexit and long term mismanagement by our own politicians. The problem is that other countries are looking for educated and talented people and plenty of us are extremely worried about a brain drain, not just of the very yougn but increasingly families too. Yet we have a Government in denial, yet again.

AI is overegged currently. Costing billions and billions for companies and nobody is even sure how they will get their money back eventually. It is being spun by big companies in the US and plenty of people are worried about a massive bubble there too.

Given the number of jobs expecting 'flexibility' whilst giving part time contracts including evenings and weekends, and some nights, childcare needs to reflect these working hours. Usually these are low paid jobs as well.

I'm surprised nobody the government has considered semi residential for kids, you know, could be called 'boarding childcare', could be combined with school, so that low paid parents could work round the clock to just keep rent paid to landlords expanding their wealth.

DISCLAIMER: ABOVE IS SARCASM!

It’s not the aftermath. It’s the current one. We don’t need these anti growth policies.

It was Inevitable. If you make it more expensive for businesses to employ people, they'll employ less people. Then you'll get less tax revenue along with more unemployed people to pay for and having insisted that you wouldn't repeatedly come back with more tax grabs, you now have to heap more tax an ever decreasing pool of tax payers. People who have already seen a big drop in living standards because of all of your other abysmal policies. Honestly fuck this government, hopefully it'll collapse long before the next election is due and we can get rid of them early.

It's a mixture. Brexit was a disaster and we had years of mismanagement from the Tories. The Labour Party have made their own mistakes and we are all dealing with the combined impact of all of it.

If we ever get growth incentivising policies, maybe after the next GE, then we have more of a chance for younger people.

You can see on threads on here how soul destroying this for young people graduating to no job. And those not graduating of course in the same boat.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to predict that there would never be millions of middle management jobs for all those "I won't lower myself to do manual work" Uni Grads.

The IL doesn't really .ake anything anymore. And computing/A.I has made most mid level corporate roles redundant. And if the mid level roles aren't needed, then neither are the entry level ones.

We educated ourselves into unemployment.

Now, even the side hustles have been taxed and regulated to death.

The government is killing the economy and closing business at record levels. It's bizarre to me how nobody can think more then one step ahead anymore.

The Renters Rights Bill for example will do nothing for tenants except make rentals harder to find and much more expensive. Get rid of small landlords, we don't want people owning houses and renting them out! But at the same time, the government (and renters themselves) have no problem with Lloyd's Bank buying up 50,000 houses to rent out.

You couldn't make it up.

This is the same level of thinking that got the country into the current mess. And these people are in charge, it's no wonder the country is fucked.

Just the abject stupidity of believing that everyone should have a degree. Great, so the taxi driver has a degree, and the passenger, going to that "high level" corporate meeting, also has a degree?

So what's the value of an education in that case. Because if everyone has a degree, someone still has to drive the taxi, work in the food factory, collect the waste, fill the potholes. Everyone seems to want a career, but nobody wants to do a job.

They are. The number of universal credit claimants who aren't required to work has risen by a million in the past year. 4 million people (50% of claimants) are now in this category. Labour completely bottled any kind of welfare reform and now seem ready to shovel more cash their way by lifting the 2 child benefit cap.

Leave the country or claim benefits are the most sensible options.

Unfortunately school hour jobs are extremely rare. Posts are unlikely to come up as they are so coveted. However your wife could check an agency which recruits within your area for support staff.
Infact part time work is difficult to find at the moment. The jobs I’ve been applying to have not got part time hours to offer.

Fix the NHS. There's quite a lot of people waiting to go back to work but unable. The country is broken, it really is. Government soundbites or bullying those sick back to work by losing benefits before helping them is tyrannical.

As a country, we have little to offer.

I was made redundant in summer, left end of august
started new job beginning of sept to be told last week they’re overstaffed and letting me go

To add I am not doing too badly
4 face to face interviews this week and I’ve got a telephone one as well but I’m looking at jobs around 28k

We've halved the number of graduate positions we are offering and have scrapped all remaining clerical positions (even receptionists) and many backoffice sales and admin positions, and those that have not been scrapped are now all offshored. This is on the back of 14% YoY revenue growth.

The reason: massive adoption of AI to do these jobs. The AI assistants and tools are shit, obviously, and just create more work for the people who are forced to use them - a simple HR or finance query, that could have been solved in minutes in a call, now takes over a week of bouncing tickets back and forth, first to a clueless AI, then to some poor sod in Bangalore, then, if you are lucky, someone who actually know what they are talking about.

But they save a shit ton of money over actually employing people which is good news for the shareholders, which at the end of the day is all that matters.

Try working in retail in the run up to Christmas and into January and then say it isnt stressful. You can always tell how privileged someone is when they come out with this kind of shite,

@Chiseltip I think you will find 37% of school leavers go to university so your post is based on total misinformation and is obviously misleading. Around 48% of the workforce has a degree. That leaves the majority without one. It’s up to young people to decide if some degrees are worth it. I don’t feel they are but it’s not true to say the best degrees from the best universities don’t lead to higher pay, becayse they do. Young people should be much more discerning.

All job opportunities are falling but the chancellor has over taxed employment. Doctors work part time to avoid paying tax and not earning over £100,000. There’s no ambition from them to reduce waiting lists. Others limit work to keep benefits. Others simply don’t want to work at all. If tax goes up, working people will feel very short changed by Labour.

48% of people having a degree is half in my opinion. You can be pedantic if you like, but the outcome is the same.

There aren’t enough positions for all those degree holders. If there were, none of them would be unemployed or struggling to find work.

Oh come on!

Working in your local Top Shop isn't stressful. Try being a Paramedic or a Police Officer, then you'll understand stress.

Stacking shelves in Tesco, while a necessary job, isn't going to get you sent to prison if you make a mistake or bad judgment call.

Not strictly true. Our next door neighbour when I was a child made the repeated mistake of leaving roll cages full of booze on the loading dock to be collected by her brother and ended up in prison.

IME it is because AI has meant businesses have been replacing workers. Watch Dispatches, it's a growing amount. AI jobs don't pay taxes.

@Chiseltip Having an educated society isn't a bad thing as long as they have skills they can use. AI is taking most non-physical jobs slowly but surely, so most of us will have to rely on the government coming up with something. They seem to prefer playing Ostriches though as there is a radio silence on this.