AIBU to think redundancy crisis is not getting enough media coverage?

[aliboob44]

To think there is not anywhere near enough media coverage about the redundancies across the country? I spent a long time reading a chat on here a few days ago, which I can’t for the life of me find, with post after post of stories of recent redundancy and job searches, either personally or of spouse / child. The same on other popular forums, this seems to be affecting thousands and thousands of people yet I don’t see it being talked about anywhere near enough! I appreciate the bbc did a short bit recently on young people and the job market but this is different. This is a huge disaster - losing jobs at a stage of life when you’ve got multiple responsibilities with limited, if any, options to go into. What can we do to get this into media, perhaps there is someone on here who could help get it the coverage it needs? I’m terrified frankly.

In mu experience, members of the public hear a strong accent and assume the staff don't speak English well. I've work in the NHs for over 20 years, the standard of their English is high. It's prejudice tbh

I'm a highly skilled professional but if I couldn't find work I would take any job.

I'm not getting a sense it's particularly worse than the last few years. There's a lot of redundancies all the time these days.

Many of those being made redundant will have savings or partners who can support them therefore they don’t show in the unemployment statistics because they aren’t claiming universal credit. This means the unemployment statistics are vastly understated.

And higher NI costs. Let’s not pretend that things haven’t got worse since this government got in power shall we?

Yes, my DH has been unemployed for over a year but we don’t claim universal credit or any benefits because I have a job and we have savings. He is what they call economically inactive.

I’m sorry to hear this, and all the other awful stories here. It is an increasing trend across the economy and unfortunately it will continue to escalate. Incredibly stressful when people have financial responsibilities. We are walking into an economic disaster.

If you look at the data over time you can see the true level of economic inactivity rising sharply now (stripping out those who are full time students, those who are disabled, those who aren’t working due to caring responsibilities). To see the true level of unemployment you have to add this number (all the NEETs, early retirees, people who have been made redundant and are living on savings/ a spouse’s income currently so not claiming welfare) to the recorded unemployment statistics (which only record those claiming unemployment welfare) and then you can see the true picture. There is a sharp and ongoing rise.

We get this a lot with younger applicants - they cant just answer the question - there’s lots of furious typing , then looking at a different part of the screen. We’ve also had applicant looking all around the periphery of the screen while being interviewed, as if they’re scanning post-it notes for information. There’s a general lack of considered thought and eye contact.

Why don't you interview people in person then? Online interviews can make people feel very awkward and not know where to look.

Eye contact is hard online. You could be looking into the eyes of the person you are talking to on the screen, but to them you would not be looking into their eyes.

A lot of people aren't taking out their first mortgage until their late 30s/early 40s now, or expect to be renting indefinitely - retirement in your 50s is dying out.

My old job laid off half the people in our department last year. Everyone left is desperate to move on because there literally aren't enough people to cover the workload, and someone had to sit down with management and patiently explain to them that seasonal temps aren't an option because it takes a lot of time for someone to know what they're doing, the way they've restructured the department makes training them to do it extremely difficult, and nobody has time to train them because work won't get done.

I remember that thread - it had some spectacularly naive/ill informed posters there about the state of the job market, blithely assuming 'find any job' was in all cases absolutely possible

I also think this..

I think one of the biggest problems is the way cash flow is managed. It’s fact that bonuses and pay for the top are rising rapidly. The trickle down of money within companies isn’t happening because they’re keeping it for the top. People who voted for Brexit - (of course not the only thing that would have held it back) a loosening of employment rights is exactly why they wanted you to vote leave….
its the absolute height of stupidity. Also the erosion of the trade unions… how many people on here are part of a trade union? We should all be. It’s a means of holding onto some power in these types of situations. I think so many have sleepwalked into this tbh

According to the OECD, our stats significantly UNDER report unemployment - ie because rate measures those who are officially seeking work but unable to find employment. The official unemployment rate does not include those who are not working and are classed as economically inactive. Add those in an unemployment stats rise by a (low) multiple

Is it anything to do with the WFH culture?

I've had a steady stream of temp work since Covid (when I was made redundant) and have worked in offices like graveyards. Sometimes I've not seen my managers for weeks on end because they are working from home.

I remember another manager explaining to me that she liked to WFH 3 days a week but felt it fair to allow her staff the same perk so they needed someone to be in the office...

On another contract the head of the dept had relocated to Rome during Covid and other staff were still getting London weighting despite having moved to places like Kent (public sector). One woman occasionally commuted in from Edinburgh.

Maybe companies are realising it is not a cost effective way to have to bring in temps to cover these people WFH - who are naturally ever so busy.

All the jobs are in care homes and hospitals doing work people simply don’t want to do, my DS cooks in a care home part time and does pot wash. There are jobs landscaping is crazy busy and £150 a day cash, jobs driving for the likes of Evri.

But there was a thread on here the other day about how the latest cohort of nurses who just qualified can’t find work as nurses because the nhs can’t afford to hire them, it just doesn’t make sense.

My DP was made redundant 5 months ago and is getting pretty discouraged not being able to get another job. Having worked in IT that was never a problem, but despite a few promising interviews, so far nothing. Not on UC as we have savings. Several in his company got made redundant at the same time.

We do interview people in person at second and third stage, we only use Teams/Zoom for first stage interviews.

I work in a job centre and recently there was discussion of AI taking 7/10 jobs by 2030 thought there was no way that would happen.
that same day my company shared its new cooperate plan… they need to save over 50m all going digital… times are about to get extremely hard. We are preparing and retraining as fast as possible for what’s coming

'Rotation'?!

My current contract I am covering a woman who is off on long term sickness as she is incapacitated by stress and anxiety. She was nice enough to phone in to say that I could contact her anytime for work support and advice. Then she started sending me pics of her DIY and remodelling of her house. 8 months later, I've heard from colleagues that said house is now on the market and that she is looking for a bungalow to downsize to. She did a very impressive job putting up decking outside and is quite the carpenter.

However, I did feel that she might be taking the piss. One of my younger colleagues corrected me by saying that 'just because she was sick didn't mean that she couldn't do other stuff - besides it's probably good for her mental health.'

I am not complaining as I think she's going for a forced early retirement which for me means that I'll be in this contract for many more months - probably up to Christmas.

Her employer might be of another opinion.

Agreed this is a factor 100% but AI and outsourcing abroad also give money saving options too.

No - not all redundancies have to be reported to the government, only employers planning to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment need to report

Agreed.
Having a drivers license rules out at least a third of us , sadly - it's the only reason I regret not learning to drive - my bike can only get me so far.
Even care work is only practical in an actual care home or a hospital , without your own transport.

Delivery driving isn't for the weak.

I am philosophically (though not practically) very far left, much much farther than Greens/Corbyn for eg - and I honestly never thought that I would live through a time where The Revolution might happen. I always believed that capitalism's unassailable strength was its ability to co-opt literally everything 'liberal/progressive' into an opportunity, and thence to continually expand.

But I'm now wondering whether AI, capitalism's best and favourite child, might actually be the thing which destroys it.

Who will be buying the This Girl Can T-shirts when everyone is destitute?

How can democracy survive widespread destitution?