Until the uk citizen improves his work ethic priniciples and gets off his back side then the current situation will continue.
Are you including me in that sweeping generalisation?
I'm unemployed; I'm 58, and I've been out of work for 5 years. In the course of that 5 years, I've applied for any and every job I thought I had a chance of getting. So far, I've not had a single reply, let alone an interview. I'm not "workshy", I haven't made a "lifestyle decision" to live on benefits, it's been forced on me by circumstances entirely beyond my control.
I'm not resigned to spending the remainder of my "working" life on benefits, but any realistic assessment of my situation has to conclude that it's a possibility, if not a probability.
I know there are people out there who deliberately set out to exploit the system, but I do not believe, for one minute, that they represent the majority of the long-term unemployed; and I, for one, deeply resent being tarred with that brush.
A good kickstart would be remove the benefits
I get Jobseeker's Allowance, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax Benefit. Together, they add up to about £7K a year.
Please explain how you think denying me that basic minimum I need to survive on is going to improve my chances of getting a job.
There's thousands of jobs going. Tens of thousands.
Maybe there are, in your neck of the woods, but not round here there ain't.
Five years ago, you could pick up a copy of the local paper on "jobs" day; on the outside it would say "100s of jobs inside", and inside, that would literally be true. You could expect to find 8-12 double sided pages of display ads, with 10-20 jobs on each side, and at least a couple of pages of Classifieds. Around 200-400 vacancies per issue.
Over the last 3 years, that number has steadily declined; and for the last 2 years or so, there have rarely been more than one or two pages of jobs advertised, and rarely more than half a page of Classifieds. They removed the strapline from the front page about 18 months ago.
I don't care what the statistics say,
that is the reality that I, and thousands like me, have to deal with.