TUC says real jobless toll is 6.3 million
Unemployment was big political issue in the 1980s. That was the last time I remember a big debate about exactly what the term unemployed meant. This article covers recent pronouncements from the TUC that under employment is as iniquitous as unemployment. It tells us:
“Unemployment could be as high as 6.3 million in the UK if a different counting measure was used, says a new report from the TUC
The trade unions body said the higher joblessness figure, more than twice the official total, was revealed using an American measure which includes people in part-time jobs because they cannot find full-time work and recent redundancies.
The official jobless total increased to 2.68 million last month and is expected to rise again when figures are published by the Office for National Statistics tomorrow.
But the TUC study said under-employment, which counts those doing temporary or part-time jobs because they cannot find permanent, full-time work, has risen to a record 1.3 million.
Another 2.34 million people “want work” but do not meet the official definition of unemployment because they have not been looking for work in the past four weeks or they were unable to start working within two weeks.”
Now in rural England – due to a lack of local employment in many communities and the trade off’s people have to make around the choice between a good job and a good place to live – there are many people who for years have found strategies to get by in terms of the labour market.
Their honest endeavour and portfolio working often resulting in low wages means that for years we have underestimated the real level of employment and low incomes in parts of rural England. It seems the recession is causing people to think more widely about the issue of low wages and limited work choices rather than simply unemployment- I welcome the more sophisticated debate as it will throw some interesting new spot lights onto the nature of rural economies. Well at least that is my hope if people are prepared to listen/think about the issues.