Is There a Worklessness Crisis?

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JonathanM

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The worklessness "crisis" seems to becoming a big story. Is it a real thing? And if so, is it actually that big a deal?

For instance, there is an article in today's Telegraph which says:

The debate around worklessness has intensified in recent months after figures found that almost three million under-25s are neither employed nor looking for a job.
Click to expand...

They are talking about 16-24 year olds. The great majority of those three million are still in school or have gone to university. Are the Telegraph really worrying that kids are staying in school until 18? Do they think they should be working instead?

I know there has been an increase overall of about 700,000 since before COVID, mainly due to more people not working because of ill health. That clearly needs looking at properly. But when you have nonsense like the above, it makes me wonder what the agenda really is and who is pushing it.
 
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JonathanM said:
The worklessness "crisis" seems to becoming a big story. Is it a real thing? And if so is it actually that big a deal?
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It is a big deal when a country gets rid of a flexible system like FOM

We have at least 1 million worker shortage
 
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16/17 year olds come under there parents so cant claim any benefits so how do they know that they are not actively looking for work ??
 
big-all said:
16/17 year olds come under there parents so cant claim any benefits so how do they know that they are not actively looking for work ??
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This particular info comes from the Labour Force Survey, rather than benefit claims statistics.
 
JonathanM said:
This particular info comes from the Labour Force Survey, rather than benefit claims statistics.
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I would look at the source data rather than a newspaper….and see what it actually says

It seems to be the ONS, but can’t track down the data as yet.
 
Notch7 said:
I would look at the source data rather than a newspaper….and see what it actually says

It seems to be the ONS, but can’t track down the data as yet.
Click to expand...

I think the data is correct. I was looking at it yesterday.

My question was really about the agenda. For a newspaper to call it a crisis that young people are in school or at university? It just seems weird.
 
Something's changed since Covid. My wife works for a small company, maybe half a dozen people and amongst other things (possibly all other things) she handles recruitment. Before covid if she advertised a vacancy she'd receive about 30 CV's. Today if she advertises a vacancy she might receive 3 , and it's clear that many of the applicants don't have the same work ethic as before.
She tends to prefer middle aged applicants over younger ones in terms of reliability but she's commented on this several times, it's as if people just don't want to work anymore. Perhaps during covid a lot of people took early retirement.
I'm not 100% sure but I believe it's easier for her to employ a couple of part timers rather that one full timer possibly because of Universal Credits or childcare requirements.
 
Certainly, I know a handful of people who made massive changes to their living/ working arrangements after COVID.

If you multiply that by the number of working folk, there has to be a fair number of them.
 
fillyboy said:
Something's changed since Covid. My wife works for a small company, maybe half a dozen people and amongst other things (possibly all other things) she handles recruitment. Before covid if she advertised a vacancy she'd receive about 30 CV's. Today if she advertises a vacancy she might receive 3 , and it's clear that many of the applicants don't have the same work ethic as before.
She tends to prefer middle aged applicants over younger ones in terms of reliability but she's commented on this several times, it's as if people just don't want to work anymore. Perhaps during covid a lot of people took early retirement.
I'm not 100% sure but I believe it's easier for her to employ a couple of part timers rather that one full timer possibly because of Universal Credits or childcare requirements.
Click to expand...
All the time we keep busy with our routine as a race we tend not to change. Covid forced a whole nation of people to effectively put their life on hold and spend time at home....giving people time to think, led quite a few to stop working.

Surprisingly it also led to a lot of people changing their careers, people in hospitality thought f**k it, I wont go back to unsociable hours for sh1t wages, I shall do something else


fillyboy said:
possibly because of Universal Credits or childcare requirements
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yeah, there is a 16 hour limit on UC, if you work over you start losing benefits.

Some might say its because people are lazy but actually, doing a few more hours means they would be worse off...and those people probably dont have any money to spare

I dont know how it could be done, but the system needs changing...peolpe should be able to work more hours and not be worse off.
 
JonathanM said:
The worklessness "crisis" seems to becoming a big story. Is it a real thing? And if so, is it actually that big a deal?

For instance, there is an article in today's Telegraph which says:



They are talking about 16-24 year olds. The great majority of those three million are still in school or have gone to university. Are the Telegraph really worrying that kids are staying in school until 18? Do they think they should be working instead?

I know there has been an increase overall of about 700,000 since before COVID, mainly due to more people not working because of ill health. That clearly needs looking at properly. But when you have nonsense like the above, it makes me wonder what the agenda really is and who is pushing it.
Click to expand...

Telegraph - need I say anymore.
 
Notch7 said:
All the time we keep busy with our routine as a race we tend not to change. Covid forced a whole nation of people to effectively put their life on hold and spend time at home....giving people time to think, led quite a few to stop working.

Surprisingly it also led to a lot of people changing their careers, people in hospitality thought f**k it, I wont go back to unsociable hours for sh1t wages, I shall do something else



yeah, there is a 16 hour limit on UC, if you work over you start losing benefits.

Some might say its because people are lazy but actually, doing a few more hours means they would be worse off...and those people probably dont have any money to spare

I dont know how it could be done, but the system needs changing...peolpe should be able to work more hours and not be worse off.
Click to expand...

It is an inflexible system designed to punish people.

www.theguardian.com

Carers threatened with prosecution over minor breaches of UK benefit rules

DWP is forcing tens of thousands of people looking after relatives to repay huge sums after buildup of erroneous overpayments
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Carers threatened with prosecution over minor breaches of UK benefit rules​

 
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