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.

I can understand your frustration. It’s frustrating for employers too - we don’t see our work as “minimum wage” (unskilled) work at all, but we just can’t absorb all these govt pay rises and associated costs. This is why we have replaced three people with one (and my husband and I doing more) so that we can keep giving pay rises and bonuses to the staff we have.

We're still importing people for jobs that people here should do.

That's the insanity.

Just to say I am still here and reading everyone's posts. Just feeling so deflated with it all - and saw another article today that they're going to cut thousands of nhs admin and managerial jobs, where exactly are all those people going to go next??

And what jobs are these

I don't see why she should have the luxury of only working school hours, I don't know many people who only do this, it's just not viable.

This trend has actually been happening for decades so I’m not sure why some seem to think it’s new. Maybe it’s a class thing, only now hitting up the higher hierarchies. Britain has been in steady decline since the 80s with entire sectors destroyed one after another like a game of dominoes. Many towns and cities never recovered from the destruction of mining with nothing else to offer in its stead. The loss of textiles is slightly lesser known, prob cos it mainly affected women. The entire information sector, starting with media and encompassing libraries, museums and even schools have seen jobs vanish, making wages fall through the floor and job requirements for qualifications soar even as skills vanish because no one’s got that time and money. Retail sheds more jobs every year, every so often you see a headline about 000s of jobs lost since a carefully-chosen date which avoids mention ofthe0000s lost before then.

Its been said for years that the push for more youngsters to go to uni was to massage unemployment figures, as is the trend to remove rights from under 25s and force them into dependency on parents. At one time teenagers used to find jobs, that went decades ago.

The drugs and sex economy has been building because there is nothing else.

No the government does not care and has not bothered to engage with the problem. People have been asking how we are going to live in the future for decades. The only possible solution is a basic citizens income or some sort of equivalent in resources, when only one person is required to work to feed 00000s. Other countries run pilots. Britain historically has no interest in the well-being of its people and will leave them to starve while importing millions from abroad to ensure a steady supply of cheap servants for the out of touch elite.

If this is truly a new issue fof you then you can be grateful, try asking older people or googling for historical discussionthreads on this very site, if they’re kept anywhere!

There are many factors in play, but key ones include the problem of the baby boomers living longer and, needing new income streams, forcing the rentier economy on the rest of us since 2000, and computers. AI is only a continuation of a long term trend.

I agree.

Businesses have already taken a hit on NI and many aren't hiring because of it

The new workers bill will slow down hiring as well because of day 1 rights

Many people earning over £100k (and therefore paying a lot of tax) are looking at reducing their hours. I've reduced to a 4 day week to reduce my income because what's the point? why would I work more for marginally less? Therefore the govt get less tax out of me.

I hate this government, they're screwing it up monumentally.

And it seems to me to be blindingly obvious that people behave in different ways depending on how you incentivise them. So incentivise them to work!

AI Overview

Discussions on the
Mumsnet forum suggest that British people on social housing or benefits rarely take on seasonal fruit-picking work due to logistical challenges and risks to their housing situation, rather than an unwillingness to work.

Key issues mentioned in Mumsnet threads include:

• Accommodation Rules: Social housing tenants face restrictions on how long they can be away from their primary residence, which conflicts with jobs that require living on-site or away from home for extended periods.
• Location: Fruit farms are often not in commutable distance from where people live, especially for those without their own transport.
• Suitability for Parents: The work is generally considered unsuitable for parents with children due to the demanding hours, physical nature of the job, and the difficulty of finding alternative childcare or local work.

This following comment is me not AI

You want ppl to do these jobs? Well then you have to give SH tenants more rights including the right to live away and not just for work reasons? Up for that are we?

And if a tenant DID take one of these jobs how long before some nosy cunt starts a thread on here saying they have reported the place as abandoned and how very dare they even live in SH when they obviously dont need it.

Plus there are the constant visits from the HA which have to be accomodated. There are going to be even more of these now due to Awaabs Law. And ppl fucking wonder why i accuse ppl of being overprivileged

Brilliant post

Exactly

Well said. No, brilliantly said! 👍

And who exactly are you going to put in their place? Reform and the Neo-Nazis? The push for employment rights is only a slight beginning at overturning a general deterioration in those rights since the 90s. Pushed by all governments.

It’s not the government that is collapsing, it’s the entire country and it’s cultural choices. I should have added one big cultural choice in my key factors for degeneration - the push for consolidation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands. That’s been called various things on the internet over the last 15 years or so, Americanism, disaster capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or my own choice Neo-imperialism, built on top of a rebirth of that imperial economic theory, neoliberalism. Globalism is part of it. It is causing the same issues now as it did then.

What a doom and gloom post.

Record numbers of people in employment, inc FT.

Immigration is less than 1/2 what it was just 3 years ago, with tighter rules on students, workers etc etc.

All the young people i know are in great jobs, health, engineering, IT & various trades, my partner was a coordinator at a local tech college, employers crying out for their skills.... a local but international defence company recent said that todays year 7 children will be working on projects that have not yet started and they have work for decades.
also heavily involved in schools, getting kids on apprenticeships & to degree level, the city centre has plans for 1000s of new homes, kick started by a international company moving into what was once a dept store.

Of course there are problems exp in housing costs, thats the number 1 issue, but to say this Govt or even the last one don't care is BS.

Is this because your job descriptions expect so many attributes? Maybe people just can't comply with your requirements?

For example, my son told me today about a graduate level role, supposedly for people right out of university - that wants two years' experience. Now ok you might do a placement as part of your degree. But asking for two years experience for someone right out of university is not generally realistic.

That employer will only get applications from people who may have done a year out before university AND a year as part of their degree. That is going to be quite a small number of people I think. Although those who do apply will be well qualified. But not really entry level.

I can't see how you are not getting people applying unless there is something really rare that you are looking for.

So where are you based where there are all these jobs? Most young people have had to apply for 100 jobs and don't get a sniff of an interview.

I know someone really well qualified, lots of interests, head girl at school, some really good internships and even she took two years to find a job and had to do a Masters to fill in time after doing some travelling.

Care work. Why would anyone expect a graduate to do care work? It's a skilled role in its own right and you need to be a certain personality type to do it.

I wouldn't do it. I'd have to be completely desperate and I wouldn't last a week. And the poor care home residents, having to be looked after by a bunch of young people who'd rather do anything else but be there.

It does make you wonder. And then the people who are in jobs often seem completely incompetent. How do they get and keep their jobs?

It’s a car crash. The long arm of Covid, Brexit, but mainly privatisation experiment & austerity. Where is the money generated by us - services, products, etc going tho? It’s not being reinvested back into industries and economy. It’s in the hands of shareholders etc. we need to tax the wealthiest in a different way - and as has started, start renationalise the essential services - water, rail, energy etc.

I was made redundant recently, no luck finding a job in the run up, not even an interview. I've taken on a part-time job through a contact from my previous job as a. It pays more than the £500 a month JSA I'd get and b. It keeps me out of the unhelpful nightmare that the Job Centre appears to be. There's also a c. of hours/pay may increase if I'm lucky!

It’s essential to use an ATS CV checker to stand a chance of your CV getting through AI screening.

I think the problem is partly wages. It’s not the case that there aren’t jobs, but lots of jobs don’t pay enough for people to cover their expenses.

It was possible to get away with paying previous generations less, as they bought property when houses were cheap, and ended up with little to no mortgage thanks to house price inflation. We now have a generation of people with high mortgage costs who can’t afford to live on 25 or 30k.

I don't think we are looking for anything particularly rare at all for most jobs. Some of the more senior ones have higher requirements but nothing out of the ordinary. And nothing that we weren't able to recruit to 10 years ago.

As stated earlier, the main problems that we see are around communication skills and general attitudes.

Yes. I work in the FE sector and many staff are on 0 hours and/or minimum wage, which means that during the summer and other holidays they aren’t paid because the college is shut. But it’s difficult to find alternative work for such a short period that would start and finish at the right times, and almost impossible to set aside money from term-time earnings because day to day costs are so high that there’s nothing left to set aside at the end of the month.

it’s a really precarious way to live, and it’s a travesty because the people affected are really skilled, often highly qualified and trained in niche areas- and as I said in my previous post, echoing someone who mentioned these “non-jobs”, there is a whole swathe of corporate positions which are paid way over the odds compared to anyone whose job actually involves the ‘front line’ of education. I saw an internal ad recently for a SENCO and I did a double-take at the salary: £26,500. For a full time post (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) requiring lots of training and qualifications as well as specific personal skills and qualities. It’s genuinely shocking.

All very well to say that it’s up to young people to decide whether degrees are worth it, but the process of applying for university starts at 16 in most cases. Universities are marketing courses at children, who have very little idea about the world of work. Careers advice also tends to be abysmal.

Ah always makes me laugh when people say they want to quit a higher paid job to work and "easy" job like retail etc.....

I mean for some it may not be stressful compared to what they previously worked but take into account the following
-moat are part time positions HOWEVER they require you to have FULL availability, and you often only get the rota the week before. So trying to work a second job (which would probably have the same limitations is night on Impossible)
-Also most companies are cutting staff left, right and centre. I think over a year of the 10 staff who have left, only 2 were replaced.
-due to the above you're often expected to work with MINIMUM STAFF. In my shop we are lucky if we even get 3 staff over the busiest period of dinner, and on top of walk in customers we also have online as in just eat and Uber who ate actually have to be prioritised over walk in. And there's only one member of staff responsible for that and for everything else that needs sorting, which usually leaves only one member of staff to serve a continuous queue out of the door
-the general public are a hell of a lot more hostile and unforgiving than previously, and will not hesitate to take it out on you
-oh and we also frequently get our lives threatened and threats of violence if we dare call out anyone for shoplifting (and of we don't call them out we then get abused from paying customers for not doing anything)
-oh and yes you get paid for the half hour after you shut but if it's been stupidly busy you're not clocking out until everything is done and you most likely won't get paid for it if it takes you past your rota finish time
-oh and if any of that drives you to a breakdown and off sick good luck getting SSP which is still currently not paid for the first 3 days and on a 4 day contract means I get paid for one day usually about £30. In other words even if I'm very ill and or suicidal -i still go to work.

So whilst it's not "stressful" in the sense of responsibility and nobody is going to die, trying to deal with all of the above (especially in my case whilst also dealing with severe MH problems that are worsened by stress) it can definitely feel goddamn stressful .