This is my truth » unemployment

Why pay less?

victoria — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:09:05 +0000

I am a sucker for catalogues and the one that dropped through my letter box today took my breath away. If I buy a new washing machine from Buy-as-You-View, whose catalogue it was, I can pay a total of £1,081.08 for a Hotpoint washing machine with service cover (the WMF740K if you really want to know) when the same machine – with 3 years service cover – costs a mere £462.49 from online retailer Laskys, with similar prices at Dixons, Currys etc. That’s more than double – £618.59 to be exact – for the privilege of paying weekly. Oh yes, and delivery is extra for BAYV’s machine.

Buy-As-You-View likes to stress its respectable credentials, sponsoring the Inspire Wales awards, promoting ‘green’ working and most astonishing of all talking up its ‘corporate social responsibility’. There is another spin, of course – blatant profiteering from low income households. Inspire Wales? More like rip off Wales.

Unemployment

victoria — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:41:50 +0000

Compare and contrast these headlines:

‘Wales suffers most as unemployment rises’ (Walesonline) with ‘Jobless numbers show smallest rise since spring 2008′ (Guardian) and even ‘UK jobless total shows signs of stabilising” (FT).

These different takes on the latest stats make it extremely important that the seriousness of worklessness in Wales is driven home hard to the UK government. Now is not the time ease off action – in fact more than ever there is a case for upping investment in job-creating public spending plans in Wales, boosting FE places, and an imaginative volunteering / job placement programme.

But when Wales’s position is different to the rest of the UK’s is also a chance to be creative and radical. Let’s look on unemployment people as a resource. There is a huge pool of skills, talent, experience and willingness to work out there (but I bet no one has done a skills audit of the unemployed). They could be used to transform the economy and society – to help small businesses, to make homes energy efficient, to help voluntary and community groups, to transform public spaces, etc. I don’t know what would it cost to guarantee everyone a job after 6 months on the dole – but WAG should be thinking about this and developing action.

Wait for something to emerge from the Department for Work and Pensions and we could wait forever – because it is clear that unemployment could slide down the UK agenda.

Work is the answer

victoria — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:18:44 +0000

Getting people off benefits is about more than forcing them to do job search and threatening them with losing benefits. A new study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation of 6 deprived communities – including Amlwch – finds that the problems are shortage jobs, low pay and poor conditions, and lack of affordable childcare. No surprises there, except that this is a very coherent argument for tackling worklessness by providing work – decent, flexible, family-friendly work. That you tackle worklessness by tackling the workless should go down as one of the 21st century’s more bizarre ideas. In practice, JRF argue for expanding the Future Jobs Fund in areas with few jobs – like Amlwch, like the south Wales valleys, at the same time as improving pay and conditions and encouraging affordable childcare. Rather than more ‘helping people back to work’ programmes, WAG could usefully develop the Future Jobs approach and get childcare sorted. Meanwhile, watch the JRF Amlwch video.

Over 50 and over the hill

victoria — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:41:38 +0000

Unemployment seems to have taken over from economic inactivity as the hot labour force topic, but that is not to say that inactivity has gone away. In fact, economic inactivity is still one of the main causes of Wales’s dismal record on GDP / GVA.

The overall activity rate is 75.7% – some way off the target of 80%. But if we look a little closer, it is clear that almost all the ‘economic inactivity problem’ is amongst older people – people aged 25 – 49 already have activity rates above 80%.

So if Wales is to solve its ‘inactivity problem’ it could start with helping its over 50s back to work, yet most jobs schemes are focused on young people. This one seems an easy win – so why isn’t more being done?

What to do about workless families

victoria — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:59:32 +0000

Just done a Radio Wales interview on the latest statistics which show that almost one in five households of working age have no-one in them who is working. Thankfully, the interview did not focus on ‘benefit cheats’, ‘dependency cultures’ and all those other phrases that are often trotted out when talking about lack of work. Instead, it looked at what should be done to help people back to work. As ever, the answers are obvious:

1. more jobs

2. more flexibility in jobs for people who need to accommodate certain health conditions

3. better child care so parents can work

4. better public transport so people can get to / from work without needing a car

5. skills people need to get and keep a job.

It ought not to be beyond our ability collectively to put these in place. What is more difficult is generating a ‘culture of hope’ rather than the despair that permeates many households and communities.

Bucking the trend, busting the Phillips curve?

nick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:38:50 +0000

Today it was announced that UK unemployment soared by a record 281,000 for the 3 months to May, yet unemployment in Wales actually fell by 1,000; the only nation or region of the UK to report a decrease. Welcome news for a regional economy that regularly trails the GVA per capita league. At the same time the Consumer Price Index fell to below the Bank of England target of 2%. The ONS do not publish regional inflation data. Great to see Wales bucking the trend on unemployment, even more remarkable if we are busting the Phillips Curve and reducing inflation and unemployment in the midst of a global recession. I’ve been wrong on this before, but surely this will affect our relative economic performance (and GVA per capita)?