Is it as straightforward to get a job as Jeremy Hunt claims? | EUROtoday

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Unemployed Brits have “ample opportunities for people to get on and get ahead in the world of work”, declare Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride – however is that this an correct image?

In the most recent push to deal with unemployment charges, the Tories’ £2.5billion Back to Work plan targets those that declare advantages with out work for causes equivalent to long-term illness or incapacity, and will increase minimal working hours for Universal Credit claimants.

In a joint op-ed in the present day for the Times, the work and pensions secretary and the Chancellor write: “We’ve been clear that unemployment benefits should only be there as a safety net, not a lifestyle choice.”

The chancellor and work and pensions secretary wrote that whereas “times have undeniably been tough”, they steered that “the economic picture is far better than many would have you believe”, pointing to the 900,000 job vacancies throughout the UK as an indication.

Despite the chancellor’s optimism, the most recent ONS information exhibits that work availability has continued to fall for the previous two years, with present vacancies estimated to be 31.1 per cent decrease than the March-May 2022 peak of 1.3m.

The determine has plummeted by 17.1 per cent up to now 12 months alone, from 1,086,000 to 898,000, with 13 out of 18 sectors seeing fewer openings up to now 12 months.

If you’re on the lookout for a job within the meals trade, IT and comms, or the humanities, you’ll discover alternatives disappearing sooner than in different sectors.

Arts, leisure and recreation have taken the toughest blow, at -34.5 per cent fewer vacancies now than the identical interval final 12 months (February to April 2023). Jobs in lodging and meals providers, along with retail, are down by a fifth. These sectors are usually extra energetic when individuals have extra disposable revenue and are doubtless persevering with to really feel the squeeze from the cost-of-living disaster.

But another sectors which require a stage of qualification even have fewer and fewer alternatives. Information and communication vacancies, which vary from IT positions to PR, are down by 1 / 4 (-25.2 per cent) from this time final 12 months, and have been broadly falling since mid-2022. Professional vacancies in science and technical fields are additionally down by a fifth on this interval (-19.6 per cent), regardless of the Prime Minister’s push for the UK to change into a ”science superpower”.

Real property is the one sector to see a considerable increase in obtainable jobs, with 30 per cent new vacancies in comparison with this time final 12 months.

Young individuals struggling to seek out work

While unemployment general has risen to 4.3 per cent, youthful teams are dealing with a number of the fastest-rising charges.

Over-18s actively looking for employment are dealing with hurdles, with unemployment at 11.2 per cent amongst 18-24 12 months olds in January to March this 12 months.

The ONS estimates that 326,000 younger professionals (25-34 12 months olds) are at the moment unemployed within the UK, up by 21.1 per cent in the identical interval in 2023, with the unemployment fee at 4.2 per cent.

While some younger persons are “sick of working hard for no money” and have missed out on key workplace life because of the pandemic, some research have steered that millennials are “the hardest working generation”. So why may these generations be struggling to get into work?

Lack of readability on pay, hours and job safety

Though the ministers’ declare that there are practically 900,000 (898,000) job vacancies is appropriate, it lacks key details about the roles themselves: salaries, hours, or whether or not the contracts are everlasting/short-term.

With 1.49m individuals in unemployment throughout the UK – and 166,000 of these changing into unemployed within the final quarter alone – the obtainable vacancies may solely meet 60 per cent of the workforce. But even then, is that this correct?

Since it’s unclear whether or not the vacancies are for full-time contracts, or what wage they provide, it’s not affordable to argue that the shrinking pool of vacancies will resolve the issue of unemployment, since it’s not attainable to say whether or not the roles would allow individuals to assist themselves and their dependents full-time.

More than 1,000,000 individuals throughout the UK are at the moment on zero-hours contracts, the place a employee doesn’t have assured hours or revenue, and which have confronted controversy because of the lack of monetary safety and stability for workers.

The newest ONS information in May exhibits {that a} quarter of zero-hours employees are ‘underemployed’, which means they wish to work extra hours than they at the moment have.

Labour beforehand mentioned that it’s going to abolish zero-hours contracts, later altering its place to say it might retain an opt-in choice.

An extra 1.45m persons are on short-term contracts, with 21.2 per cent saying they took the job as a result of they might not discover a everlasting place.

The job emptiness shortfall is prone to be larger than the uncooked numbers recommend as a proportion of the 898,000 job vacancies might be short-term, part-time or for zero-hours contracts.