2nd highest unemployment in the country, are we surprised?

[Vague_Boy]

Labour were only elected in 1997, but I agree with you that we always get mass unemployment when the Conservatives are in power.

Both Labour and the Tories simply shunted many people onto invalidity/incapacity benefit to massage the figures.

 

In 1979 there were 700,000 people claiming such benefits (link).

 

By 2006 this had risen to 2.7 million (PDF link).

 

Had the UK as a whole become 400% sicker in the intervening period?

 

The number of incapacity benefit claims ballooned from 700,000 in the 1970s to 2.6m today, in part because it was politically convenient to remove people from the unemployment roll.

Financial Times, July 12, 2009

LINK

 

A lot of people on SF seem to have not the slightest clue of how the world really works.

 

Also worth mentioning is 8 million economically inactive [dated February 2010].

 

Along with:

 

A coincidence? Youth unemployment rises 450,000 in the time it takes 600,000 migrant workers to flock to the UK

 

I don't recall Tony "nice guy" Blair doing much about that. The Boy Cameron seems to be backtracking as well.

 

 

Go on then, name the "non jobs" that were created.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, will criticise positions such as “audience development officers”, “cheerleading development officers” and “communications waste strategy officers”. All have been employed by local councils in recent years.

LINK

 

My favourite is Angus council's bouncy castle attendant.

 

Local authorities have taken on an extra 180,000 workers since 1997, with the total number not employed in traditional front-line roles now standing at almost 750,000, according to ministers.

 

Council non-jobs total rises to 750,000

 

The local council should be responsible for collecting refuse, maintaining street lights, tarmacking roads, that kind of thing. Anything else is outside of their remit.

[Tradescanthia]

The Tories will sort it....but only in the south east and London...as usual. New rail links, new airport [named after Boris] AND THE NORTH CAN GO TO HELL !!!!!!

Why dont we vote Tory in Sheffield...I wonder.

[love_rat]

At least with this round of unemployment, we are seeing people suffer who are more deserving off a bit of pain.

 

It may make them think twice in the future, before supporting policys that undermine the true working class. The problem is, is that its too late, the geenie is out of the bottle and policys by new labour, cannot be reversed.

 

As long as its the leftys in non jobs feeling the pain, then I'm happy

[LeMaquis]

At least with this round of unemployment, we are seeing people suffer who are more deserving off a bit of pain.

 

It may make them think twice in the future, before supporting policys that undermine the true working class. The problem is, is that its too late, the geenie is out of the bottle and policys by new labour, cannot be reversed.

 

As long as its the leftys in non jobs feeling the pain, then I'm happy

 

Who are the true working class? People whose spelling is a bit iffy?

 

Before you go on about "non-jobs" read

 

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/news-and-events/press-office/press-releases/nhs-staff-numbers-in-england-increase-for-second-year-running-to-reach-just-over-143-million-census-shows-today

 

where you'll see that a lot of the jobs created under the last Labour government were in the NHS, not just in councils. As you Tories don't like the NHS all you're doing is trying to distract attention from the cuts you're making there.

[Jim Graham]

On threads like this where politics and economics collide the only real fuel for the debate is ignorance. I never cease to be amazed how little some people know about how the world works.

 

As usual we have the "world owes me a living" crew bemoaning their lot.

 

I work in IT and was unemployed for 2 months but I never appeared on the statistics. I know lots who don't. They just take care of themselves and get on with it. We also struggle to get good people with the right skills, and more importantly, the right attitude. That's a failing of government policy of the last 20 years.

 

As usual the loony left are getting themselves in a tangle with their beliefs:

 

On the one hand they support a creed that takes wealth from those who earned it and gives it to those who didn't. On the other hand they expect the country to be run by people who create wealth so they can share it. On yet another hand they expect those people to be Labour who have no idea how to create wealth only spend it. Good luck living in that world.

[biotechpete]

no 2.68 million in the country, and 270, thousand. at a rate of 10.1 percent of the workforce in yorkshire. thats unemployed

 

That makes a little more sense, but I'm still not clear how the your OP relates to the thread title or in fact what it's got to do with Sheffield. This is exactly the kind of non-answer I'd expect from a Labour supporter/politician

 

So is it Yorkshire that's second in the country? How does Sheffield compare to the rest of Yorkshire for unemployment? I would be surprised if Sheffield were had the second highest unemployment of any city in the country. Surely Hull, Glasgow, Newcastle etc would be higher. That said, with the atrocious results Sheffield schools achieve I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of our city are unemployable.

 

On the otherhand I'm not surprised we're heading for a double dip, in fact I thought about a year ago that this would happen. There are huge structural problems in European economies which will take years if not decades to overcome. Not sure the present government can be blamed for that. It's a global crisis, which was started by banks, wholly run from a weak regulatory system in London, set up under a Labour government, and put in place by Gordon Brown.

[monkey69]

That makes a little more sense, but I'm still not clear how the your OP relates to the thread title or in fact what it's got to do with Sheffield. This is exactly the kind of non-answer I'd expect from a Labour supporter/politician

 

So is it Yorkshire that's second in the country? How does Sheffield compare to the rest of Yorkshire for unemployment? I would be surprised if Sheffield were had the second highest unemployment of any city in the country. Surely Hull, Glasgow, Newcastle etc would be higher. That said, with the atrocious results Sheffield schools achieve I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of our city are unemployable.

 

On the otherhand I'm not surprised we're heading for a double dip, in fact I thought about a year ago that this would happen. There are huge structural problems in European economies which will take years if not decades to overcome. Not sure the present government can be blamed for that. It's a global crisis, which was started by banks, wholly run from a weak regulatory system in London, set up under a Labour government, and put in place by Gordon Brown.

...

thanks point taken, i have put the correct information into the first post..

[Paul2412]

Would the people who say there are jobs out there give us a clue where the 2.68million jobs are that are needed for the unemployed.

 

The company I work for has been advertising 5 positions since November. I've been included in the recruitment process. So far I've experienced...

 

People being late for interviews

People not turning up for interviews

People lying on their CV

People turning up in jeans and a t-shirt

Not one person has asked questions

Not one person passed the basic technical test

 

The positions vary from junior to senior web development positions.

 

There are jobs about, but people need to be prepared to make an effort in order to gain employment.

[addylewis]

I'm not surprised...there's almost nothing out there job-wise at the moment and whenever you actually LOOK at a shop it'll be closing down within a month!

[Brian Hanson]

THOUSANDS OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE getting paid Income Support and yet they 'don't' give society anything back for the money they recieve.

 

It's about time our government got it's act together and make "WORK FOR DOLE" compulsary.

 

Just think how 'Clean' our country would be, if all the unemployed were employed picking up litter, rubbish, clearing derelict sites and converting them into parklands with rose and flower beds and lovely green lawns.

 

We'd be a country with no unemployment.