UNEMPLOYMENENT
IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY - Stephen McMurray
Definitions
Unemployed
Refers
to people without a job who were available to start work in the two weeks
following their interview and who had either looked for work in the four weeks
prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.
Unemployment Rate
Unemployed
as a percentage of the economically active population.
Economically Active
People
who are in employment or are actively seeking employment
Statistics (Annual Population Survey)
Jan-Dec
2007: Number of unemployed 1,579,700 (5.2%)
Peaked
between Jul 2011-June 2012: Number of unemployed 2,551,700 (8.2%)
April
2014-March 2015: Number of unemployed 1,920,800 (6.1%)
Worst
hit sectors (June 2007 – June 2015)
Manufacturing
341,000
Public
Administration 282,000
Construction
195,000
Wholesale
and retail 110,000
Finance
and insurance 38,000
Increase
in Part-time Work (170,300)
July
2011 - June 2012: 7,340,700
April
2014 –March 2015: 7,511,000
Increase
in Self-employment (511,000) (ONS)
July2011-Sep2011
4,079,000
April2014-July2014
4,590,000
Increase
in Zero Hour Contracts (554,000)
(ONS)
2011
190,000
2015
Apr-June 744,000
Disadvantaged Groups in Employment
UK
employment rate of people aged 16-64 73.5% (May-July 2015). (ONS)
UK
employment rate of disabled people 16-64 46.6% (Apr2014-March2015)
(Annual population Survey).
UK
employment rate of ethnic minorities 16-64 61.8% (Apr2014-March2015)
(Annual population Survey).
Government Response
The Work Programme
Started
in the summer of 2011. 15 of the 18 contracts given to private sector
organisations. Two year programme, focus on work-first, rather than improving
employability.
June
2011 – June 2015 (27%)
Attachments
1,724,690
Jobs
459,370
ESA
Claimants (10%)
Attachments
312,710
Jobs
30,790
Sanctions
Increasing
use of sanctions if people don’t apply for enough jobs, late for JCP interviews
etc. Citizens Advice Scotland estimate that there are 200 sanctions per
day in Scotland.
Vacancies (ONS)
June
– Aug 2015 740,00 vacancies, probably nearly two million unemployed.
Simply not enough jobs in the economy.
Edinburgh Employability Projects Closed
Nisus
2008
Blindcraft
2011
Remploy
2012
SkillNet
2015
The
Engine Shed 2015
Woman
Onto Work 2015
Impact of Unemployment
Stirling
University Study – Unemployment changes personality, less agreeable, motivated,
sympathetic, curious.
Discussion
Kate asked how the projects in Edinburgh
were financed?
Stephen replied that most came form the
City Council budget but that there was also some national government funding available.
Both sources of funding have been severely cut.
Pat said she was surprised when she saw
the extent of the projects that have been cut in Edinburgh. She had been
involved in some of the defence campaogns, and it was useful to have the full list
before her.
Despite
the misapprehensions of some who saw these projects as merely providing
'pretend work', Remply had manufactured engineering components and Blindcraft
had produced beds which many people had bought.
These
places had been targetted becuse they were easier to close.
Allan said that he seemed to remember in
the case of Blindcraft that the Council had deliberately split the workforce,
saying that continuing to keep the place open would jeopardise the pay-offs of
the longer term employed nearing retirement.
Duncan asked what Nisus did?
Stephen replied that Nisus had provided
basic IT skills training fo the unemployed in Leith.
Eric said that he worked for a charity.
People on Workfare had been forced to work for charities.
He
also pointed out that the personal and social effects of unemployment which
Stephen had highlighted applies just as much to the effects of inequality. This
had been shown in The Spirit Level by
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
He
then asked how should RIC use this information?
Stephen said that the differnce between the
number of available jobs and the unemployed highlighted the falsity of
Osborne's arguments, desptie the fact that the official unemployment figure
underestsimated their real total, and the fact that it would not only be the
unemployed who applied for the job vacancies. The poor quality of many jobs was
highlighted by the massive expansion of zero hours contracts.
Allan said that when it came to
campaigning Mike Vallance's talk on Workfare ( see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/resisting-austerity.html)
provided a lot of information.
Eric thought that the campaign for a
Citizens Income (see http://radicalindyedinburgh.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/anne-miller-of-citizens-income-trust.html)
was imporatnt in the context of the fight against unemployment.
Stephen said that a Citizens Income would remove
the stigma attached to being unemployed.
Eric said that many unemployed people
were being forced to apply for jobs that didn't really exist. When vacanices
were filled they were still posted as being available. Sometimes the same job
was advertised in a number of different forms. This whole process is a waste of
time as far as getting a job is concerned. However, that is not the rea lpurpse,
which is to drive people off the claimants' list.
Kate said that in her own experience many
advertised jobs were filled internally, but were posted externally as being
available to meet employment requirements.
Duncan said that official government
policy had gone from seeking full employement to managing acceptable levels of
unemployment. There are no longer any subsidies available for businesses in
trouble.
Allan thought that this reflected the change
from the post-war Keysnesian attempts to manage national economies, with one
aim of seeking full employment to the post-1979 neo-liberal acceptance that
national economies would have to find their niche within the global corporate
order, and that unemplomwnt was an indication of a person's failings, either in
tems of skills or not being prepared to accept the pay and conditions demanded by
business.
Kate said that big busineeses wanted
unemployment to discipline the workforce.
Eric said that despite all the claims they
made for themselves about providing large scale unemployment, companies like
Walmart and Amazon eliminated more jobs than they created.
Kate said sthat she was shocked to find
the Coop using automatic tills.
Pat said that empoyyers argued that
zero hours contracts gave workers flexibility. The real answer was to provide
permanent contracts with flexible wroking arrangements.
Pat
also pointed to the STUC's Better Than Zero campaign.
