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Friday, June 22, 2012

depressing

there has been a lot of talk about youth unemployment, there has been various schemes and plans to cut youth unemployment (though the idea that the minimum wage might be a bar to employing the young isn't one of the ones that should ever be pursued).
no matter the words or the deeds it still remains a problem.

while attention is focused on the young there has been a growing problem with long term unemployment for the over 50s, as i know to my cost. at the moment the over 50s are the worst hit age-group when it comes to long term unemployment, currently it is at a 15-year high.
if there are obvious social costs for youth unemployment there are also the same for the over 50s and they have the possibility of increasing more each year as we have an aging population.
the business community is constantly going on about a work force that is fit for work (their rallying cry over the low standards, so they claim, of the current education system, yet at the same time they are happy to waste the resource of workers who have experience of work and who can add value to their companies. (they might argue that there are health issues that they are considering (even though that is illegal) but really what they probably don't want are workers who might question them).

all that being said, even though there has been an increase in the number of people who are now in employment - a large chunk of that increase is down to people becoming self-employed or just working part-time.

no matter what the words or schemes are at the moment there are not enough jobs. the solutions that the conservatives and business community seem to favour (fewer worker's rights and lower pay) are just recipes for increased misery and poverty throughout the country.
maybe that is exactly what david cameron and his clan are really after.

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