The unemployed

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2003
Posts
14,864
I'm now 31, been working full time since I was 16 and never been out of work. I've moved from job to job but not one day out of work. I'm not that clever, not that great a people person so I guess I must just be lucky when there's 1.9MILLION people on the UK unemployed.

What the heck are all of them doing?! There's jobs out there, granted perhaps they don't have the skills/experience to do them but it just seems like a huge number.

Just seems like a waste of a huge workforce, can't we get them all doing something constructive? I'm not having a go at them but I know of one family where none of them have ever worked a day in their life, dad, son and now grandson all unemployed and "don't see the point" getting a job when things are just given to them. There's so many people who are genuinely trying to get a job then there's wasters like these, surely it's time we got tough and put them to work. i'm not suggesting slave labour but there are job they could be doing, anyone can clean graffiti, tidy up, help school kids cross the road.

Not meant to be a rant at every unemployed person, just shocked me how many the news said were claiming! :)
 
Be aware that most of those are not the *same* people each month. Most of them are in transitory unemployment and return to work within a few months.
 
Exactly, I think its more how many people are unemployed at any one time.

But yes, its a lot. The problem is matching up the right people with the right job, and getting both people to accept the match-up.
 
Living off the dole?

Some people i understand will stuggle to get a job due to factors such as ill health etc, but some people are just lazy =/!
 
Just because a person is unemployed it does not mean that they are not contirbuting to society. We are encouraged to see uneomployment as stagnation to attach social stigma to those who are not paying into the government's coffers.
 
cleanbluesky said:
Just because a person is unemployed it does not mean that they are not contirbuting to society. We are encouraged to see uneomployment as stagnation to attach social stigma to those who are not paying into the government's coffers.

tis true - technically i've been un-employeed for about 6 months in the last year, although i've not been claiming doll money, and i've been mostly working for charitys doing small scale IT infastructure setups :)
 
I haven't worked for the past two and a half years but I haven't claimed a penny of anyone.

I have been a full time house husband while my wife has gone to work.

My real gripe is with people who claim disabillity. Other people to me just play a flawed system.
 
Some can't work, some won't work and some just can't find work that pays enough.

I left school in 1991 and right in the middle of a recession in the north-east of England, an area of high unemployment to start with as major industry like coal mining and ship building as being decimated. These times make people who they are if the mettle is there in the first place.

A few of the lads I hung around with at school turned to crime and one lad who I used to help breed budgies got a hefty sentence of 11 years and I think back how I could have went down that path but chose not to. That is how I was brought up.

I only found this out after I lost my dads but he was laid off before I was born and for 2 months he went out everyday and came back at the end of the week with a wage. He only told my mam a few years ago about it He went out and did anything to provide and that is the mentality of some people with a work ethos. I was almost in tears when I heard this as it summed up my dad and how a lot of people up here here. Grafters. Sadly, there are those who do not think like that. I have worked since 1992 after getting a post as a junior industrial chemist and have worked since although I did change careers in 2000.
 
Unemployment isn't a problem, lack of income is.

If you were some rich lord, you may be unemployed (is 'Lording' a job?) but no-one would be concerned about it.

The problem with the long term unemployed is the welfare state is comfortable enough that the difference between benefits (and there are many) and a minimum wage job, just isn't that much.

If you are married with children the number of benefits you instantly give up means you need a 'good' job to make it worth it, not just a minimum wage time filler (of which as you say there are many).

Most good jobs require skills and / or experience and they might not have these - especially if their previous industry has collapsed (engineering / mining etc).

If you could choose to spend time with the kids or work double shifts in a factory just to break even what would you do?

Young kids with no dependants living with their parents should always work, they have no reason not to even if it is minimum wage.
 
Because a lot of people are better of on the system, one of my mates is classed as disabled and has just got a new £15,000 peugeot for £40 a week(taken out of his benefits) He doesnt have to pay council tax and his rent is £35 a week for a 1 bed flat

On benefits they get cheaper housing, milk tokens, no or discounted council tax, plus im sure there are other reasons as well.

There seems to be nothing available to help people that actually go to work and lead a honest life. Me and my gf cant afford a place, but can we get discounted housing ?> NO because we are not on benefits.I want to do a computer course at the college cost to me as im not on benefits £150, FREE to benefit claimers.

This why under 18 pregnancy is at a all time high as people see it as a way of getting housing.

Everything is to easy for those that dont deserve it yet hard for those that do honestly need a help out in life every now and then

Its the government thats at fault as well, especially for letting so many people from other contries but dont get me started on that.
 
Telescopi said:
Young kids with no dependants living with their parents should always work, they have no reason not to even if it is minimum wage.

I agree with this which is why I think they should get no dole, or perhaps just 20% of what they'd get if living on their own. Because for them, as you say, any job at all will pay very well for them.
 
Slinwagh said:
My real gripe is with people who claim disabillity. Other people to me just play a flawed system.


I hope you mean people that falsly claim disabilty?

And i meant what telescopi has said a bit better :D its the income side of it, you really do need a good job. Another person i know doesnt bother working as if he went to work and earned 15k at the end of it hes only better off by around 1500 a year by the time they have stopped helping him with what they do now
 
dirtydog said:
Be aware that most of those are not the *same* people each month. Most of them are in transitory unemployment and return to work within a few months.
Aren't the figures adjusted for that (As well as seasonal / migrational unemployment, among others)?

The real crunch number is long-term unemployment. I believe it was Mrs T. that first stopped their benefits, just so that she could post a reduced unemployment count.

</Socialist Worker>
 
dirtydog said:
I agree with this which is why I think they should get no dole, or perhaps just 20% of what they'd get if living on their own. Because for them, as you say, any job at all will pay very well for them.


I dont know how these youngsters get this "dole" money so easy, when i was out of work and needed some help. It was called job seekers allowance and they only payed this if you want to x number of job interviews and got them to sign to say you had attended. Some jobs were up town etc so by the time you have been to the interviews you donthave a lot left after paying transportation costs.

Ive recently had a serious accident leaving me unable to work and the paper work is unbelievable even though im seriously hurt and have paper work and medical notes to prove it, i dont how all these people get the stuff so easily as i found it hard to fill in the paper work which incidentally is pages and pages long
 
Borris said:
Aren't the figures adjusted for that (As well as seasonal / migrational unemployment, among others)?

The real crunch number is long-term unemployment. I believe it was Mrs T. that first stopped their benefits, just so that she could post a reduced unemployment count.

</Socialist Worker>

Well, the claimant count figure (which used to be, but now differs from, the headline figure of course) does include transitory claimants.

I agree that the most important figure is the long term JSA claimants, and those swinging the lead by fraudulently claiming sickness benefits.
 
If those are ILO numbers, the figure will only include people actively looking for employment. It will not include Siliconslave's charity workers or Telescopi's men of leisure or, for example, housewives. The real problem is the long-term unemployed, which probably number around half a million.
 
Gavin said:
I hope you mean people that falsly claim disabilty?

And i meant what telescopi has said a bit better :D its the income side of it, you really do need a good job. Another person i know doesnt bother working as if he went to work and earned 15k at the end of it hes only better off by around 1500 a year by the time they have stopped helping him with what they do now

Woops, thats what I meant, thanks for the correction !
 
Whoo add me to the unemployed list.

I'm currently just taking a time out for a few weeks, then I'll start looking for a new job.

Difference is I'm not claiming any benefits of any kind, so as long as I'm not a burden on anyone I see no harm in not working for a while.

I've always thought there should be some kind of community work for those on benefits. If they can't do a normal job, then get them cleaning up the area they live in.
 
Nothing wrong with the unemployed just becuase you want a job, others might not - why do they want to earn shed loads of money for some massive business and be paid peanuts. Theres loads of factors that cause unemployment and to moan or think your better than somebody becuase their unemployed is just sad really.
 
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