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.

Different types of stress
I have done retail, call centre and emergency services before someone tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about
retail is stressful with abusive customers the same as emergency services. Yes you don’t have the worry of killing someone or ending up in court but I can’t say it’s not stressful

When you know the new employer can get rid of you for no reason at all at any time for the first TWO YEARS, it takes a huge leap of faith to sign yourself into a new tenancy agreement/mortgage that hasn’t the same flexibility.

Your business probably has a reputation issue then?

Actually, we have a very good reputation, as reflected in the very positive reviews on glass door, exit interview data and retention rates amongst the staff that we have. There is no shortage of people wanting to work with us, just a shortage of high quality applications.

I think this is a fair point, and I don't blame people for being cautious.

Do companies ever approach universities to team up? Maybe offering in house experience would have a flow of new recruits?

Actually we have fairly recently started working with two local universities and we have recruited a number of staff this way - one of the universities is particularly helpful in filtering the candidates before we see them, and this definitely helps with some of the concerns around quality. We are hoping that we can get the other uni to adopt a similar model, but I appreciate that they also have limited capacity and resource.

I totally get what you're saying. And the government keeps banging on about 'getting disabled people into work'. I think they are totally oblivious to the fact that if a person who has no disabilities, an unbroken track record of employment and is highly qualified,struggles to find work,how the hell is a disabled person going to manage? With my disability and health problems,I know I wouldn't last a month in a job. That's if I even managed to find one in the first place! I'm 62, haven't worked for many years due to increasingly poor health,so what employer in their right mind is going to take a chance on me against a fit,able bodied and probably much younger person? Some days I feel so awful I struggle to get out of bed,never mind having to travel and put in a day's work. Not looking for pity just saying it like it is. This government thinks that ALL disabled people are desperate to find work. If they feel able to,that's fine. But if like me,you feel it would be the last straw,it's unfair to make us feel like worthless scroungers and layabouts. And I don't believe for one second all this waffle about 'You'd get all the support you need'. Utter bullshit. All they're interested in is reducing the number of people who are economically inactive. Once you've found a job,that's it,you're on your own.

That is just not true.

The other long term issue with AI which isn’t being addressed is what happens when those experienced staff move on, retire etc. if there’s no entry level staff moving up the ladder. There’s going to be a massive skills gap needing to be filled and no people with the experience to do it because well you know AI!

@Chiseltip So you think 96% of working people have a degree? That’s clearly ridiculous.

Hmm, where are all these ultra qualified people who can't find jobs, I wonder?

Same!! I had 2 roles vacant earlier this year that took months to fill. High paid, skilled roles needing particular qualifications & experience. Loads of applicants with crap cvs, poor interview skills, really gormless. People who ignored that the job spec said 3 days in office and wanted remote or barely in (once a week or fortnight).

My employer had redundancies but a lot of the roles that went were what my SiL calls "Made Up Jobs". Change managers, transformation managers, "strategy", "commercial excellence". Internal communications got pared back.

Jobs where if someone stops doing it, the company goes on operating.

The other long term issue with AI which isn’t being addressed is what happens when those experienced staff move on, retire etc. if there’s no entry level staff moving up the ladder. There’s going to be a massive skills gap needing to be filled and no people with the experience to do it because well you know AI!

This really worries me in my sector. Its getting really hard to get good people 5 years into their careers.

Actually, we have a very good reputation, as reflected in the very positive reviews on glass door, exit interview data and retention rates amongst the staff that we have. There is no shortage of people wanting to work with us, just a shortage of high quality applications.

We've had the exact same. Its a lovely place to work, good pay, people stay years, but there are so many crap applicants. I think a lot of people maybe apply for sideways moves they don't have the experience for, or are trying to get a huge step up. We had a manager role paying £75k and had several unqualified people 2 years out of uni applying for it. Just wasting time.

Fuck right off, I've worked retail, hospitality, cleaning AND call centre work. How bloody rude to assume otherwise and throw around words like privilege like your opinion is fact.

Which proves my next point beautifully. The middle classes couldnt give less of a shit when computers replaced ppl in supermarkets. THEN and STIILL it is the fault of working class ppl if they cant find a job You only have to see the way SH tenants are spoken about on here, But the minute AI starts to affect the middle classes the blame game seems to go the opposite way. And i didnt say working in retail was as stressful as working in the emergency services but it is stressful The stress does not reflect the wage paid which has to be topped up with UC Because the inane clapping they got during the pandemic doesnt pay the bills. Interesting that you chose Top Shop as your example rather than Tesco.

I think this is really significant - plus, if you move away from family/friends you lose your support network, so if you are ill or you get married/have children, you have no one.

MN is full of threads about women juggling FT work, childcare and bewailing the fact that their parents could have helped but are 4hours away. I usually assume the GPs have downsized and moved, but of course they are likely to be like my DH and I (3.5-4hrs from my ILs) - he came south for work and as a result we have zero day to day support with our kids. As they have SEN it meant we had no choice but for me to be a SAHP. My PiLs are amazing and regularly visited to help with decorating or took the kids for a week every summer or when I was ill, but absolutely not the same as having them close by.

In essence, I think it may be wise that YP are not moving miles away for jobs with so few guarantees.

I HRTFT but the first and last pages, and I broadly agree. People have made some very good points.

I think they need to be really radical in reforming the tax and benefit system (and the tiny, beaten-down optimist in me thinks maybe, just maybe, that’s what the speech was for, that the budget will be truly radical) and look seriously at UBI in some form.

in my sector, education, I’m looking at the moment and there is nothing for me within reach. Despite the short staffing levels nationally! I can’t understand whether it’s the migration of job ads away from the TES pages (all teaching jobs used to be advertised there) and into recruitment agencies that you have to be registered with to apply for, or whether school budgets are so squeezed that they actually can’t afford to replace staff who leave. I’m not maths or science but even so, it’s far bleaker than I thought it would be. The cynic in me thinks the increase of corporate/ management/non-teaching, non-support posts has hoovered up a lot of the budget, while TAs working full time claim universal credit because they can’t afford to live in this area without it.

I run a business and over the past 12 months we have lost three employees - one retired, one we moved on and one resigned when we wouldn’t increase her salary.
We have absorbed most of that work and taken on one new person but at this point we won’t be hurrying to hire new people - the cost of MW going up and NI has just made us really think hard before we take on a new person
Equally, we took a chance on a 17 year old school leaver as an office junior and although she is good at her job, we like her and she gets on with the team, she is unbelievably unreliable. She’s been with us 6 months and in that time she has had at least three weeks off (dotted around) if not more.

We have had so many issues with unreliability, it leaves us tearing our hair out. The employee we moved on had so much time off with sick kids - we were sympathetic but she worked three days a week and we worked out she had only achieved 3 days for 7 weeks in the past 6 months.

Thr employee who left because of money couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t keep increasing her salary above MW. We explained that the increase wasn’t us, it was the govt and this role had already had a 25% pay increase over a year to MW but apparently this wasn’t enough.

We are trying to get good people now because once the new Employment rights come in we will only hire if we get totally desperate. The risk is too great otherwise. It’s a shame cause we’ve taken a risk on people loads of times before but we couldn’t do that if we couldn’t move them on if it didn’t work.

Having been someone who moved away, I second this. My dad was amazing at coming to help, but the t would have been easier with kids if we lived nearby. It would have also meant I could have spent more time with him in a relaxed way, rather than a ‘visit’.

But we moved where the jobs were, and it was too expensive an area for him to join us (and by the time we earned enough to fund accommodation for him, it was too late).

So now I warn my kids that moving away has downsides, so to think carefully before they do it.

The carework sector is bonkers to work in.
It's often suggested for those trying to work around children/caring responsibilities but I didn't find it suited this at all.
It was a job advertised as flexible family working hours. Not one shift was flexible in my favour. It started before school and nursery and finished after school and nursery. It was 0 hours contract so they could cancel a shift or what I found was actually I'd turn up and theyd be bemused as why I was there. Great when youve organised childcare. Or I'd get no shifts at all for weeks so then couldn't afford nursery. Then they'd want me to work full time for 2 weeks with no notice.

They didn't pay me properly for the first 6 months only when I left did they finally pay me what I was owed after months and months of raising it. Completing time sheets going to managers etc

It was minimum wage but huge stress and responsibility. I was left to work alone looking after young adults/teenagers hoping no one would overdose/self harm/stab someone/violent aggressive behaviour etc

They wanted you to do endless training in short time span but didn't provide the time/laptops or computer access to do it. Wasn't allowed to do it at home even though managers would openly say that's the only way they could complete their own.

I have 3 children one with additional needs there is no wraparound care where I am or any specialist care that even exist not that we could afford it anyway. I'm restricted to school hours and term time. I felt like I moved heaven and earth to try and work. It felt futile. We wasn't much better off financially at all but we were all very very stressed.

@Ozgirl76 Minimum wage has been law for ages. Why did you need a 25% uplift to meet the law? It sounds mean.

Just announced on the radio: Hospitality jobs 1/3 down. There are not jobs readily available. Often jobs advertised don’t suit possible employees.

Thank you for sharing. I knew less about this sector, but it also sounds nuts.

These zero hour contracts make planning multiple jobs or childcare incredibly hard.

Sorry, you’ve misunderstood. She was earning slightly over minimum wage, but the MW itself has now increased over what we were previously paying her. So she was on (say) £9.00 ph and MW was £8.50, then MW has increased to £12.21 so we now pay her 12.21 but she says we should pay her above that because she was previously “not a MW employee”.

(note these are not actual figures apart from current MW)

This is what happened to me! Started a PT job couple of quid per hour over MW and then ended up on about 20p above when it reached current levels. At this point I realised the stress and responsibility and monitoring by external bodies etc wasn't worth it.