Employment confusion

[andrewducker]

When I was unemployed for about 18 months back in 1994-95 (just after graduating), I was sent on a few training courses, and put into unpaid work placements. Is this actually different to what's currently being proposed?

I'm not trying to snark - I'm actively confused as to whether this is in any way a new thing.

Comments

[marrog.livejournal.com]

The OBR employment forecast for the whole economy predicts that employment will increase every year from 2010/11 (28.89 million) to 2015/16 (30.23 million).

Is that actually a real terms % improvement given projected population growth? I make it almost exact flatline in terms of % of the population.

When I said 'current' measures I was personally talking about the stuff in the last week or so - as I said above in my comment. As to the various more theoretically progressive incentives that are being introduced I'm less negative than some fellow frothing socialists regarding the emergency budget itself, but I'm skeptical that they'll go more than a tiny distance toward offsetting the damage done by other measures. However there's really little more I can say on that that isn't already readily available from other sources, better explained and referenced than I would.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Is that actually a real terms % improvement given projected population growth? I make it almost exact flatline in terms of % of the population.

That's a good point. The OBR publications that I can find don't make it easy to tease out an answer. The labour participation rate is forecast to fall slightly, from 63.0% in 2010 to 62.3% in 2016. However, this rate refers to all persons aged 16 or over, when you really want the rate for people between 16 and the state retirement age: with our ageing population, you would expect labour participation to fall simply through a greater percentage being retired.

The best indication is probably the projections for the unemployment rate. This is forecast to fall from 8.0% in 2010 to 5.8% in 2016. This would suggest that the proportion (and absolute number) of working-age people in employment will rise steadily over the next few years.

These projections might be wrong, of course, but that's a whole other argument.