It;s late, I'm tired and bored, but I'm awaiting a daughter to return;
Some food for thought;
It's all from 'reputable' Government, ONS, EU, Charities, Universities etc. sources. Some of the comments are mine, do feel free to tell me if/where I am wrong or what I've missed.
And all rounded but reasonably accurate
UK Population................67.9m
Not working Age.............26.6m
Potential Labour Force..41.0m
Economically inactive.......8.5m
Unemployed.....................1.6m
Employed.......................32.0m
Only 20% of not working are classed as unemployed
According to the statistics 1.5m are unemployed. Well, that's so small as to be ridiculous and useless. It also includes the many benefits receivers who pay lip service to looking and available for work. I wish we could do something about them, though I have only my own experience to go by, I think there are far too many of them but we have bigger problems.
We need to understand the 8.5m economically inactive.
It would appear that "Economically Inactive" (EI) is a b******* term used by various Governments to cover up other issues. In my opinion it is a ridiculous approach and should be at least better explained if not entirely abandoned. I also have no truck with working out whoever introduced it, all the useless b******s have kept it.
The definition of Economically Active (EI) used is people not in employment who have not been seeking work within the last 4 weeks and/or are unable to start work within the next 2 weeks.
*BUT* EI was supposed to be working age people who are;
-Student.
-Looking after family or home.
-Long-term sick.
-Retired.
In fact EI is just a maths exercise and a catch-all and is simply;
Workforce - (Employed + seeking/available for work) = EI
Some of them would work if they could. Some of them need better care than simply a category meaning they don't matter.
There are EI who want a job, have few prospects and so have given up looking. Long term hopeless so we just don't count them as unemployed.
There are EI who want a job but are not available within the next two weeks who want to work after that. (recovery, relative recovery, school holidays, temporary sickness etc. etc.) We we don't count them either.
It also includes people who have a job already arranged to go to but will not start within two weeks.
- EI is concentrated amongst those with little or no qualification.
- EI features heavily in households with unemployed
- Inactivity is concentrated amongst those with poor job prospects
- Most inactive men are not available for work through sickness or disability
- 34% of working age men without qualifications are economically inactive
I often say that all the unemployed who want a job have got one and the rest are wasters. A generalistion for sure, but not an unreasonable one in the scheme of things.
However, it is quite clear that not all the EI *want* to be EI and many of them would work if they could.
It also means that without foreign workers I don't understand who's going to be doing all the explosive growth BJ is promising.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 20 Feb 20 at 03:19
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