Jobs disgrace
An upbeat Mervyn King, celebrating falling inflation, unemployment down in the region, despite growing nationally - an unusual reversal of fortune - and the Prime Minister in the region; although it was only to tell us to drink less (odd, given his former role on the board of Urbium which runs the chain of Tiger Tiger bars). Anyone would think the worst is now over and the Coalition's economic policy was right all the time.
Scratch the surface though and a rather less positive story emerges.
Firstly, a growing proportion of workers are shifting from full-time work to part-time. While this is popular with a lot of workers, allowing them to juggle other responsibilities with working, and while part-time work is often better than no work at all, the number of people who are working reduced hours involuntarily is increasing. 'Under-employment' is masking the real labour market picture and under-estimating the real unemployment picture. In addition, this is a further cause of spending power being taken out of the economy. Part-time workers are not only earning less in weekly terms than full-time employees, the hourly rate of part-time work is, in most cases, much lower than the hourly rate for full-time employees.
We ought not get too carried away about a small surge in employment in the short-term also, mid to long-term prospects still remain fairly bleak here in the north east. Most public sector, almost all third sector and many private sector employers predict further job losses in the year ahead. Unemployment remains at 11.2 per cent (nationally the jobless figure is now at a sixteen year high) and in many parts of the region, most notably Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, the ratio of JSA claimants to vacancies stands at more than 20 to 1, while nationally vacancy levels are down almost a quarter of a million on the pre-downturn level.
If the current outlook in the labour market weren't bad enough (and it is), the challenge for people on the fringes of employment are made considerably worse by some notable employers taking full advantage of the depressed conditions. Companies like Tesco and McDonalds, for example, advertising 'wageless' jobs. Taking full advantage of the Coalition Government's Workfare Programme by advertising jobs, including nightshift posts, in which the 'employee' merely continues to receive their unemployment benefits. Others, like Argos are making permanent employees redundant while taking on temporary staff who are paid only benefits.
While there is a case for the Treasury subsidising meaningful employment development opportunities, this isn't what's happening. These high profit-making companies are merely exploiting the desperate situation long-term unemployed people find themselves in, fully aided and abetted and paid for by the Department for Work and Pensions who threaten to remove the benefits of any worker who refuses to accept these 'job opportunities'.
This is the real story behind the 2012 UK labour market, under-employed, underpaid and undermined - desperate workers exploited by mega-rich corporations with the government's blessing .
Kevin Rowan
Regional Secretary
Northern TUC
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