Loads of jobs

Yesterday’s unemployment figures were great news. 1.5 million additional private sector jobs have been created since the 2010 General Election. Unemployment is now down to 6.9%. More young people and people who have been out of work for a long time have found jobs. The majority of the jobs are full time. In my constituency unemployment is now down to just 1%.

The best way out of poverty is through work. The best way to a good job is to have some sort of job and work your way up. The best way to cut the welfare bill is for many more people to rely on work income for more of their financial needs, shifting off unemployment benefits. Tough welfare reform is easier if work is available for many more people, and if work is a realistic option. Those who cannot work should of course be treated generously.

Starbucks announced it will transfer its headquarters to the UK, and will as a result pay more tax here. That could be another sign that a lower Corporation Tax rate brings more business and tax in. It was also a recognition by Starbucks that the UK is the fastest growing of the EU countries this year and could continue to do well thereafter.

Pay has also just edged ahead of price rises for the first time since Labour’s Great Recession in 2008 smashed living standards. It has taken time to turn the economy around sufficiently to reverse this process. It will take longer to get real living standards above the level of 2007 before Labour’s crash. It is strange hearing Labour continuing with its mantra about a “cost of living crisis” which they started off in such spectacular fashion with the Great Recession. Just as their mantra that the Coalition was “cutting too far and too fast” had to be dropped because it was not true and the economy anyway started to grow faster, so they will have to drop this mantra before the election or look as if they are rooted in the past and do not like improving news.

All the main political parties want more people to have jobs, and want pay to be better. Rising living standards are a common aim. The row should be about how you achieve this. It looks as if the current recovery can now start to tackle the poor performance of real wages since 2007, and can certainly continue to offer many more people the chance of a job instead of life on benefits. If at the same time the government has sufficient control of our borders, this augurs well for getting the welfare bill down for the right reason – fewer people will need welfare.

74 Comments

  1. lifelogic
    April 17, 2014

    “Pay has also just edged ahead of price rises” well no it has just increased slightly more than prices this year after years of decline due to incompetent, bloated governments over regulation and over taxation.

    You say “the row should be about how you achieve this” but everyone sensible knows exactly how to achieve this. Other than a few dopes who are inflicted by BBC and Libdim think.

    You just fire about 50% of the state sector (50% over paid anyway with pensions on average). They so often do so little of any real use (or even worse damage), you cut all the endless idiotic regulations, you get rid of expensive religious green crap energy, you get out of the EU job destroying lunacies, you cut and simplify taxes, have easy hire and fire, fire anti business Ed Davy/Clegg/Cable types and get out of the way. Simplification of tax and the sorting legal system (risk reward balance) would cut the huge number of pointless jobs in tax avoidance and absurd litigation.

    Cameron is alas still increasing the obstacles to employment with gender neutral insurance & pensions, idiotic compulsory pension, daft employment laws even some new lunacies on legionnaires disease inspections for small block flats I hear.

    What a ratting, half brained, election throwing, pro EU, greencrap, Heathite, socialist he is proving to be – but then so is half the Tory party.

    I see it is claimed the Eric Pickles is going to cut out some land wind farms. What about the even more economically idiotic offshore ones. Just cut out the tax payer subsidy and kill the whole idiotic industry until it becomes competitive and has technology that works at a sensible cost. Why little the country and the seas with expensive white elephants.

    Investment in industry is still dire, banks are still totally dysfunctional, irrational, hemmed in by idiotic capital and slotting regulations and often a complete rip off too.

    1. lifelogic
      April 17, 2014

      The recovery is being artificially encourage for election purposes, it is welcome but not really well founded in long term investment in world beating industries.

      Starbucks is not ever going to be a provider of very many high paid jobs in the UK. They cannot even make a coffee that I like, despite all the endless names they have for it. The tax system should tax it sensibly regardless of where the head office it. Profits should not be transferable away from their source by slight of hand- sort out the absurd tax system.

    2. lifelogic
      April 17, 2014

      David Cameron puts God back into politics I read.
      British Christians should be unashamedly ‘evangelical’, says David Cameron!

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10771339/David-Cameron-puts-God-back-into-politics.html

      Does he mean he wants more dopey, lefty, bishops in the House of Lord talking economic drivel? Dr Rowan Williams types droning on about food banks, rich men and needles, and saying the unemployed need extra bedrooms paid for often by taxing poorer people who go without them?

      Is there any issue the Cameron compass ever gets right? He needs to concentrate on getting religious indoctrination of young minds, the green religion and religious sexism out of state schools, before we end up with another Northern Ireland in the northern ex-mill towns and similar areas.

      1. Richard1
        April 17, 2014

        If its been reported corrected this was a very silly intervention indeed.

  2. arschloch
    April 17, 2014

    The government has no intention of securing our borders. Why should it it loves the endless supply of pliant labour that will usually go for the lowest rate going. John I would bet you 50p that most of the cleaners down at Westminster were not born in the UK either.

    1. Timaction
      April 17, 2014

      The present and future LibLabCon Party have no intention of controlling our borders as it would require Treaty change with all EU Countries who have a population of 485 million who can come here and access all our public services for no charge. They have the same rights as the indigenous population under Treaties stealthily signed by the legacy parties.
      Our Presidents Barrosso and Merkel have told us that free movement is non negotiable. LibLabCon have no understanding of National interest. That being what is in the interests of the indigenous population as they see us as an EU superstate.
      It has to be to create a Country called Europa (EU).

  3. Mike Stallard
    April 17, 2014

    “It is strange hearing Labour continuing with its mantra about a ā€œcost of living crisisā€ which they started off in such spectacular fashion with the Great Recession.

    No it isn’t. He (she) who pays the piper calls the tune. Guess who bankrolls the Labour Party? Guess who are spouting Union messages: more pay, better conditions, we feel your pain etc.

    What is more interesting is the coming implosion of UKIP.

    1. lifelogic
      April 17, 2014

      What do you mean by the coming implosion of UKIP? Clearly in the general election they will not make much progress but they will do very well when people can vote freely on the EU as in the MEP elections.

      Labour is clearly the party of the state sector unions already hugely overpaid and pensioned relative to the worker drones. The last thing the country needs but then Cameron is just the same – well almost.

  4. Richard1
    April 17, 2014

    Miliband’s ‘cost of living crisis’ is an urban myth which has got supposed resonance because many leftists in the media, particularly the BBC, want to see a Labour govt. There has no doubt never been a time when people didn’t complain about prices and wanted to be paid more.

    I caught some part of a C4 documentary yesterday attacking the welfare cap, showing weepy people in Tower Hamlets potentially having to move. One single mother with 4 children got c. Ā£36k pa in tax free benefits and didn’t want to move from the area. Another couple with 5 children the same. The interviewer did not ask where the fathers of the single mums were, why they have had 4 / 5 children when they cannot support them themselves, nor did he draw attention to the tens of millions of people – billions if you look around the world – who make their own living and who regularly have to move either for work or because they need more affordable accommodation.

    The Labour Party – no doubt these were examples of its core vote – should be renamed the Welfare Party. With its defence of sclerotic welfare and union driven labour market practices the Labour Party has become the anti-work party.

    1. alan jutson
      April 17, 2014

      Richard1

      Yes I viewed the programme as well, and I had exactly the same questions as you, Questions which the programme simply failed to ask.

      When told that their Ā£700 per week (tax free benefit) was being reduced to Ā£500 (tax free) the lady in question said, well I suppose I had better look for a job then, as if this was a revelation
      The fact that she was paying for a sky package and admitted to numerous mobile phones may be the reason why she did not have enough money left to pay the rent, seemed to pass her by.

      Interesting that all the examples highlighted showed not enough money left to pay the rent , but did not actually show any breakdown on what the other expenditure (many hundreds of pounds per week) was actually made up from.

      Most sensible people pay for a roof over their head, then food, heat, light, and power before anything else.

      I do feel sorry for those who are in genuine trouble and health through no fault of their own, and they certainly need help, but for too many this has just been a lazy way of life.

      1. Richard1
        April 17, 2014

        The programme was unwittingly a great advert for the Govt’s welfare reforms

    2. lifelogic
      April 17, 2014

      The fathers have gone, so they do not have to pay and they have 4-5 children because the system encourages then so to do. Others will pay for them and the cycle will continue until the system changes.

      I blame the system more than the claimants.

      1. Peter Davies
        April 17, 2014

        Spot on – this issue has been put in the “too difficult tray” by politicians for far too long now. Its a credit to IDS that they seem to be doing something about it – lets just hope we don’t get another idiotic labour administration to undo it all.

      2. Tad Davison
        April 17, 2014

        This reminded me of a tea trolley pusher from some far away place (we have to be careful how we describe these things these days) who now works in a local hospital. He showed me some pictures of his UK girlfriends (yes, more than one!) that he doesn’t live with, and the many children he has fathered in order to gain his right to live here. Children that the British tax-payer is now paying for because he doesn’t earn enough. It’s all down to a right to a family life you see, under the terms of the Human Rights Act.

        Of course, this nation is absolutely desperate for tea trolley pushers. So much so, that we have to import them, for there is obviously no-one in the UK who could do such a demanding job. But as this man works, he is counted as an ’employed asset’ in Lib Dem and Labour speak, and making a ‘valuable contribution to this nation’. But no mention of how much his fecklessness has cost, and continues to cost the British tax-payer.

        All things considered, I would say he’s more of an unwanted liability, but he’s not unique. There are a great many more like him. You’re right LL, there’s something wrong with the system!

        Mugs, Rubbing rags, fools, soft-touches – there are lots of ways to express what we in the UK have become – but every one inspired by pathetic governance by politicians who are unfit to hold office. Yet the people keep electing them again and again.

        Tad

        1. Anonymous
          April 17, 2014

          Tad – It seems that we are having to import Big Issue sellers too.

  5. Antisthenes
    April 17, 2014

    All the good work that has been done by the Conservatives despite the Lib-Dims will be for naught if RedEd occupies No 10 come 2015 as he will undoubtedly undo it all. The Conservatives need more time to complete the reforms already started and address other issues notably the reform of the EU or exit from it and reducing the role of government and the size of the state. Labour will win the next election not because they are the best party to run the country as they patently are not as they cannot make a decent decision or see the obvious damage their policies do but because of the culture of dependency and entitlement they have created and which a large part of the population believe only they will continue to foster.

    1. Tad Davison
      April 17, 2014

      If we go back in time Anti, we repeatedly see that when the economy is good, people vote Labour. When it’s a basket case, they vote Tory. That is surely telling us something, but there is something else for them to consider. The Tories have seen diminishing returns, and we can peg that to their increasingly pro-EU stance.

      Were the Tories to REALLY stand up for Britain, denounce the EU, purge themselves of all the Heathites, and campaign to get us out of he EU altogether, the Tories would be out of sight. Alas, they have allowed themselves to be run by people who are little better than the parties they say they oppose. Little wonder then, there is increasing support for a party that WILL get us out of the EU if we get behind them.

      The Tory party is not what it once was. The pro-EU Tory left have been a disaster, and is plain to see. Let’s hope they see sense.

      Tad

  6. Iain Gill
    April 17, 2014

    I wouldnā€™t have written this article like this John. It smacks of complacency, and a lack of understanding of the issues facing genuine people.
    Off the top of my head issues that have not improved:
    1 Foreign workers being used to undercut native workers, uncapped intra company visas and so much more. No incentive to hire or train Brits.
    2 Still no real jobs market able to provide work for the majority within travelling distance of many of our largest social housing estates.
    3 Lots of under employment not showing up in the official statistics, middle class folk running down their savings rather than register unemployed, etc.
    4 The gap between the South East and the rest of the country gets ever bigger.

    1. John E
      April 17, 2014

      I agree with Iain. Just yesterday I had a couple of conversations with people who said “They are trying to say everything’s fixed but it isn’t is it?”. Good news is of course to be welcomed but needs to be put in the context of the overall position lest people think they are being tricked for electioneering purposes.

      Looking at the stock market leads me to think this manufactured mini-boom will peak too early for the general election .

    2. libertarian
      April 17, 2014

      Iain

      I guess youre from the school of never letting the facts get in they way of a good myth or media sound bite.

      1. We have a minimum wage in UK as demanded by Unions and the left so its not legal to undercut wages ! There are a total of 29,000 intra company visas in operation out of a total workforce of 31 million. Less than 1% of the workforce

      2. Just total nonsense . One google search of local jobs disproves that

      3. No evidence for this in any statistically significant number & offset by small % of people who refuse to work even though they could

      4. Whilst its true that the South East is a massive market I would suggest you actually go look at some of our booming northern cities

      Oh and as for not training. Wrong there have been over 500,000 new apprenticeships created in the last 9 months alone

      There has been more than 7 million advertised job vacancies across the UK in the last 12 months

      Why keep spouting these myths? I know lots of people THINK this is the situation but there’s no excuse for this. You’ve only got to look to see its not true

      1. Iain Moore
        April 17, 2014

        It is only illegal to undercut the minimum wage, everbody else’s income is up for being undercut.

        1. libertarian
          April 17, 2014

          Iain Moore

          Not if you are good at your job and in demand. Average wages are rising too.

          1. Iain Gill
            April 21, 2014

            “good at your job and in demand” being in demand has little to do with being good at your job these days. The recruitment business just CV shuffles on buzz words it doesnā€™t understand, ignore success or otherwise of projects you have worked on, and so much more.

      2. ian wragg
        April 17, 2014

        1% of the workforce is an awful lot of unpaid tax and NI plus a lot of money remitted to the parent country. As for undercutting the minimum wage this is done in underhand ways such as providing expensive B&B accommodation. Gang masters commission for services (unspecified) and commission only jobs in takeaways etc etc. Get out more young man.
        I’m on a zero hours contract so technically employed but earing nowt at times and unable to claim benefits.
        White, English taxpaying Christian so ruled out of benefits on so many levels.

        1. libertarian
          April 17, 2014

          Ian Wragg

          Typo should have been 0.1% but what ever, why do you think they’re not paying tax and NI ? Oh and I assume there are some unscrupulous people that are doing as you say. I wonder how that stacks up against the indigenous people also doing it, doing cash in hand and black market jobs. Get out more? Oh dear but thanks for the young man bit. I would bet I’m probably older than you .

          I’ve no idea what you do for a living. If you are on a zero hour contract and it doesn’t suit you why not get a better job? There’s plenty about. You need to get out more

      3. A different Simon
        April 17, 2014

        Libertarian ,

        A huge proportion of the people working in software development in the U.K. are now(from abroad ed) on I.C.T. visas .

        Thanks to the EU-Indian trade deal number , Indian outsourcing firms are to be allowed to bring (substantial ed) numbers of workers to the UK .

        This despite University bursars having found that computer science graduates in the UK have amongst the worst job prospects of any degree .

        Quote “1. We have a minimum wage in UK as demanded by Unions and the left so its not legal to undercut wages !”

        How can a minimum wage prevent immigrant labour undercutting the wages of people who are currently earning above the minimum wage ?

        Where there are shortages of certain skills , wages should be allowed to rise which will send a signal to British Workers that it’s worth getting skilled up for that sort of work .

        Why not leave it to the UK job market rather than distorting the market by flooding it with cheap labour from abroad ?

        1. libertarian
          April 18, 2014

          Dear A Different Simon

          Try reading all my posts and the links I linked to . You will then find that what you have posted is total nonsense. No not even 5% of the IT software development workers are on overseas visa’s. Wages in software development are RISING not being undercut. The average IT salary in the UK is now Ā£32k.

          Your complete fabrication about University bursars and IT degrees I’m afraid is also complete drivel. What is it with all you people that want to believe that overseas workers are taking all the jobs? You all miss the massive heard of elephants in the room which is that if IT employers were only interested in employing cheap labour they don’t need to go through the tiresome and expensive visa route we have masses of highly educated East Europeans who are totally at liberty to come here under EU regulations.

          1. A different Simon
            April 19, 2014

            Libertarian ,

            Take a look at this report from the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing .

            http://cphcuk.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/cs_graduate_unemployment_report.pdf

            The employers bringing in foreign I.T. workers are not UK companies but are the massive outsourcing companies , mostly from India . That is why they are not bringing in Eastern Europeans .

            Open access to UK employment market for I.T. workers was THE key demand from India in the India-EU GATT .

            Personally I’m sick of having the UK taxpayer (paying ed) people coming to the UK on I.C.T. visas to threaten my livelihood .

            Why would anyone put themselves Ā£40k into debt by doing a computer science degree in order to obtain a package of Ā£32k for those periods you can find work ?

            This is around the starting package of a police constable when the value of pensions are included and that job is as secure as can be and the pay goes up .

          2. Iain Gill
            April 21, 2014

            A different Simon,

            Well said!

            Very well said!

            This should be front page news

      4. Iain Gill
        April 17, 2014

        Libertarian,
        1 Even officially according to the government ICT visa holders are only being paid lower quartile pay for their role. Surely you can see that means in the bottom quarter of pay range for the role? When you realise that its bottom quartile for the role averaged over the whole country but ICT visa holders are biased towards work in the South East you should be able to see that in the South East it puts them in the bottom eighth of pay rates, if not lower? Thatā€™s without any of the many and varied abuses of the system going on, all completely unpoliced.
        When counting ICT visa numbers remember
        ā€¢ Count visas issued in previous years still valid, not just those issued in one 12 month period.
        ā€¢ Remember the spouse is typically granted the right to work here, so add in a factor for the large number of spouses entering the country.
        ā€¢ Count the large number of ICT entrants, and their families, given indefinite leave to remain here simply for working here a few years, in previous years and this still happens. All displacing Brits from the workforce. Add them into your numbers.
        ā€¢ The vast majority are working in one industry sector IT, a business where not so long ago the biggest specialist companies in this country were in the order of a few thousand people strong. Making the numbers of intra company transfer visas massive in the context of that industry sector. Not to mention a large number are the tip of an iceberg fronting a big outsourcing operation where many of the jobs are being done in the outsourcers home country and are systematically moved away from this country.
        ā€¢ Remember the massive amount of leading British intellectual property that these visas are facilitating being moved abroad to undercut this country. Itā€™s a massive commercial mistake for this country to allow this to happen.
        2 Come with me to one of the big Northern social housing estates and show me any viable jobs market for the vast majority of the residents, you won’t be able to because unlike you I have been there and looked. There are drips of work available but nothing demanding the large workforces like the mines, shipworks, steel works, and so on these estates were originally built to support.
        3 Its not counted so it’s hardly surprising there is no statistical evidence.
        4 I bet I am in the North more often than you are, and in a much wider cross section of places.
        As for apprenticeships the word has been devalued as many current apprenticeships are in nothing more skilled than burger flipping in burger bars, these are not the highly skilled training of our parents generation, and many employers use them simply to be able to hire folk below minimum wage. As currently operating apprenticeships are nothing for this country to be proud of.

        1. libertarian
          April 18, 2014

          Oh for goodness sake Iain Gill

          Why not just admit you’re wrong. You keep trying to argue how many angels on the head of a pin. We get the idea you don’t like foreigners. IF UK employers were so desperate to employ overseas workers they could import them and their families and anyone else who wants to come from the EU Eastern Europe.

          There are a TOTAL thats IN TOTAL 29,000 visa holders across ALL industries combined not just IT. Sorry Iain you obviously work somewhere that has hired overseas workers to your personal detriment but the industry overall has basically very little impact from overseas visa holders. That is LESS than 0.1% of the total work force

          In 1980 there were 955,000 people working in the IT & tech services sectors in UK ( bare in mind more IT people work for non IT companies than do ) The two biggest areas of non IT employers of IT workers is Financial services and the Public sector. You are really claiming that the public sector is under cutting salaries by bringing in overseas workers???

          In Dec 2012 there were 2,537,000

          Today there are 2,727,000 thats a RISE of nearly 200,000 people in just over 12 months. All data from ONS.

          I see business and IP is another area that you lack knowledge. The Intellectual property is owned by the corporations not by individual workers.

          You have NO IDEA where I’m based. What has social housing estates whether in the North, South East or London got to do with IT work?????

          Your inability to hold a logical debate says volumes

          I do have a problem with the minimum wage of apprenticeships. I have not come across a single apprenticeship in Burger flipping. A tier 3 apprenticeship is equivelent to a degree. Is there any subject area of the recruitment and employment field in which you aren’t totally ignorant?

          The thing is I hear these arguments ALL the time. Its cognitive dissonance . My business advertises employment opportunities. Increasingly ( more than 55% ) direct from end employers and not agencies. The numbers of vacancies has been rising consistently for the last 4 years. After 15 years in this business the last financial year for us was the biggest ever. Advertising grew by 30%.

          Thing is its so easy to prove. You’ve only got to google jobs to find them all. The reason that some people struggle to find work is because they aren’t very good at the job search process. We have more than 600,000 cv’s registered with us. 40% roughly are awful littered with spelling, grammar and layout errors. Inconsistencies, some even lack contact details !!!

          Looking for a job and the application process has radically changed in the last few years. Schools, college and University career advice is very poor and not given enough attention

          1. Iain Gill
            April 21, 2014

            Libertarian,
            You remind me of a flat earth believer.
            You invent your own fantasy vision about the background and beliefs of those who disagree with you. You complain about me having “NO IDEA” about your background, and yet you make much bigger mistakes in your assumptions about me. Pot Kettle Black.
            You ignore the massed common sense of the specialist industry forums, and industry pros. I already pointed out the errors in your position. So for you the earth will always be flat. You are wrong and flying in the face of all the evidence.
            You fail to understand the reality and have a very limited understanding of the true picture.
            Indeed you fail to understand the rationale behind why the political class has changed the use of ICT visas from their originally designed purpose to their current usage, which is all about trying to gain access to India for our financial services companies and as part of that they accepted behind closed doors that they were damaging our own IT business. Even in their wildest dreams they didnā€™t think people like you would defend these visas. They were playing chess and the British IT workers have been sacrificed in the hope of winning Indian financial services business, a set of calculations which is badly mistaken, and the Indian side have been playing chess a lot better than our political class.
            I like foreigners, indeed I am married to one as a simple example of how multi cultural my life is, and how mistaken your assumptions are.
            You seem like a nice person, blinded by a limited perspective.
            Every single one of your arguments is wrong and is easily demolished.
            Take Care

      5. libertarian
        April 17, 2014

        That of course should read less than 0.1% of the workforce on intra company visa’s

  7. margaret brandreth-j
    April 17, 2014

    Let us hope that the jobs are good value jobs or many will not see any difference between benefits and work. People don’t work their way up in the North John. A ‘good’ job is a dirty word. As soon as the relevant experience, qualifications and talent is displayed ,it becomes a scenario to be made a profit out of, yet if things are looking up ;I applaud that.

  8. Andyvan
    April 17, 2014

    “All the main political parties want more people to have jobs”
    Not entirely true. The state promotes a massive welfare system that creates dependency in millions to ensure that those dependents vote for more state interference. Labour is the biggest winner of this but all parties in the UK are socialist to a large degree and all want a big state sector despite any rhetoric to the contrary.

  9. alan jutson
    April 17, 2014

    My youngest Daughter having been advised that she would be made redundant by her present employer a few weeks ago (the Company moving to a less expensive part of the Country wages wise) has now fortunately found herself another job locally.

    Whilst I would agree that things appear to be improving, it is still not easy to find work which pays anything much above the minimum wage, no matter what your skills.

    Would certainly agree that even a temporary job is better than no job at all, indeed many employers look to take on temporary staff as a sort of trail period of their skills, and to see how they fit in, before offering them a permanent position, rather than employing them from the start on a probationary period, and then having all of having to tell them they have failed, and leaving themselves open to some sort of claim or tribunal.

    Given that so many temporary jobs lead to full time employment, why does the Government not encourage more people to take this option with easy sign on, sign off procedures instead of the nightmare scenario that we have now of qualifying periods, and delay in the system.

    Likewise self employment should be encouraged by the tax system, not penalised.

    1. libertarian
      April 17, 2014

      Alan

      The average wage in the UK is Ā£26,500 in order for it to be that there must be a significant number of jobs paying in excess. So its just not true that the majority of jobs are minimum wage .

      For example this is a breakdown of just one web portals current salary breakdown

      Ā£20,000+ (204333)
      Ā£40,000+ (76827)
      Ā£60,000+ (29714)
      Ā£80,000+ (14684)
      Ā£100,000+ (8018)

      ie more than 300,000 jobs ALL paying much more than minimum wage

      I totally agree with you about the usefulness especially to those just starting out of Temporary work.

      1. alan jutson
        April 18, 2014

        libertarian

        Yes I am fully aware that the average wage is well above the minimum, but if you read my words carefully, I did not say that the majority of jobs are of minimum wage, or that the majority who are presently employed are of the minimum wage.

        I simply said:
        “it is still not easy to find work which pays much above minimum wage….:

        Thus this excludes all of those in work from the calculations.

        I can only speak as my daughter has found, having trawled through very many job web sites, agencies, local newspapers, written many speculative letters, logged her own CV with a number of Agencies, and registered with numerous CV type web sites on line, etc
        She was prepared to travel up to an hour each way using public transport from where she has her own home. (last job was one and a half hours each way)

        Clearly your earnings and prospects depend upon your skills and experience, but during the last 8 years having earned above the average wage then, (she has been made redundant twice during that period) she now finds that salaries have actually dropped considerably as has been the case for many people.
        Thus she has taken the solution that many have refused, and been prepared to look at jobs below her capabilities in the hope that she can improve her lot perhaps through internal promotion, rather than just sit on her backside and moan about her fate.

        She has now secured a position with what looks like a good local company, which has some prospects of moving forward (due to their line of business) within walking distance from her home, which is a huge benefit.

        As I am sure you will agree for anybody, far better to look for work whilst still in work, if the job you are in fails rock your boat.

        So to answer your point, yes of course there are jobs around which pay considerably more than the average wage, let alone the minimum, as many thousands of people change employment each day, but for many they may not be local to where you live, may not be the hours you want to work, or indeed your skills maybe not in line with what they require.

        Whilst I fully agree that you need to get out and look, and be prepared to travel a reasonable distance, few will actually move home (at huge cost) for just an average salary, in an average job, because as we all know, no job is for life, and loyalty to any Company is worth nothing should they choose to move location, as my daughter has found out twice.

        1. libertarian
          April 18, 2014

          Alan

          Glad your daughter has found work. She sounds like just the sort of person that employers are looking for. I hope she really enjoys her new role.

          Wages are rising in all areas of the country. Funnily enough I set up my businesses exactly because I realised that the majority of people don’t want to move home in order to improve their job prospects.

  10. Iain Moore
    April 17, 2014

    Politicians boast that we have more people in work than ever in our history.

    So Mr Redwood why is it that we can’t afford to pay the bills?

    All these people beavering away producing oodles of income tax should be sufficient to pay for Rolls Royce of public services , but it isn’t, we can only afford public services if we run a massive deficit.

    For all the hype, what has been produced here is a low wage economy, such a low wage economy that the state is having to step in to subsidise peoples wages with Tax Credits. Even though we desperately need a shortage of labour to drive up wage costs, remove people from in work welfare, so force our industries to invest in productivity, this will never happen, not while we have mass immigration, for while we need a economy that is producing rising GDP per capita, what we are getting a rising GDP that barely keeping pace with the rising population,

    1. A different Simon
      April 19, 2014

      Wage levels are not low .

      Campbell Newman out in Queensland is the only politician in the world to point out that the problem is the cost of living .

      The two main problems in Britain are :-
      – no proper pensions provision for 80% of the population .
      – criminally expensive accommodation which only benefits the mortgage lenders .

      Time to introduce a location value tax to provide a negative feedback into house prices and use it to reduce tax on labour .

      Within the next decade the pensions crisis is really going to hit home .

      People will be forced to liquidate their cars , engagement rings everything they’ve got within the first 5 years of retirement and they won’t get much for it because the market will be flooded with the possessions of other people forced to do the same .

  11. Ex-expat Colin
    April 17, 2014

    I wonder exactly what the jobs are..apart from tax trawls. I am sure I know and I’d not recognise most of it as…sustainable

    Then get the Treasury to hose it up many different walls. What I see of IT (for example) in this country is a real scary eye opener, how on earth it operates I cannot fathom…luck? Chocolate Teapots pervade !

    As an aside I note the young lads of the Ukraine super fighting force are not too keen on murdering their fellows. Good to see that and the APC wheelies. The criminals are still in charge though along with similar flying in to jerk it all forward. Brave men in noisy fast jets at low level – NOT

    As Dan Hannan says to day (D.Teleg) – get rid/get out and please hurry up!!

  12. Denis Cooper
    April 17, 2014

    Going around a ghastly area in a nearby town a few years ago the cynical thought crossed my mind that Labour had had a long time in both local and national power to sort out these problems, but to do so too effectively would destroy a part of their support base and would not be in their narrow party interests; for their party it is necessary that the poor will always be with us and voting Labour; and if there is any risk that we might start to run out of our own poor then they will arrange for more to be imported from abroad.

  13. alan jutson
    April 17, 2014

    “If at the same time the Government had sufficient control of our boarders”

    In a nutshell you have described a major part of the problem, because having a successful economy will be like a magnet for more, inwards free movement of people.

    Thus the benefit that more jobs should bring to our existing population, will be diluted.

    Do not also forget that rising wages have not overtaken inflation, because wages are taxed, we are still a million mile away from disposable income (take home pay) exceeding inflation.
    Thus savings and wages are still suffering from the effects of inflation.

  14. ferdinand
    April 17, 2014

    Now Mark Carney must raise interest rates. Anyone who sold their business and retired on the sale proceeds of say Ā£300k will have lost Ā£75k in interest since the base rate was 0.5. Savers need a lift.

  15. Brian Tomkinson
    April 17, 2014

    JR: “If at the same time the government has sufficient control of our borders”
    I presume by “sufficient control” you mean open doors to as many of the whole of the EU who care to come here? That is your party’s policy along with your coalition partners and Labour, as they all want to keep us subservient to the anti-democtaric EU.

    Reply Of course I do not mean that, and have often written on this site about the need to have control of our own borders.

    1. Brian Tomkinson
      April 17, 2014

      Reply to reply,
      The problem is that you write one thing but enthusiastically support a party which offers and implements the opposite.

      1. APL
        April 19, 2014

        Brian Tomkinson: “you write one thing but enthusiastically support a party which offers and implements the opposite.”

        Yes, odd that.

  16. Denis Cooper
    April 17, 2014

    It would have been unprecedented for the modern UK if the economic downturn had not eventually been followed by some kind of recovery, typically following recovery in the US with a lag of something like a year. The political question is how much credit the present government will be given for that economic upturn. Some people will blame the present government for unnecessarily prolonging the downturn rather than putting the blame on the previous government for creating such a dire mess for its successor to sort out, and as so many people had no real understanding of just how bad the mess was at the time of the last general election it may be that the present government parties will get little net credit for the recovery at the next general election.

  17. Leslie Singleton
    April 17, 2014

    Dear John……..’REGAINED control of our borders WOULD augur well’……… would have been much better in your closing sentence. Watching Birmingham being described as a “multi ethnic City” on the box a couple of nights ago was enough to make one cry. Anyone remember when people used to say, ‘But this is England’?

  18. English Pensioner
    April 17, 2014

    But sooner or later the state is going to have to find some way of dealing with this type of person as reported in today’s Mail:
    “Jobless mum advises her daughter, 19, to get pregnant – for an easy life on benefits”
    Apparently she’s been drawing benefits for 20 years, lives in a three bedroom council house and now gets Ā£1200 a month. I can’t believe that she’s the only one doing it.
    Perhaps the Victorians were right with their workhouses!

    1. Brian Tomkinson
      April 17, 2014

      Do you think any of the three main parties in Westminster will “find some way of dealing with this type of person as reported in todayā€™s Mail”?
      I’m afraid I can’t see it; after all, in that particular case they have had 20 years to sort something out and haven’t even tried.

    2. alan jutson
      April 17, 2014

      EP
      “I can’t believe she is the only one doing it”

      Absolutely right, some other prime examples on Channel 4 last night “How to get a Council House” view it on catch up if you want to get annoyed.

      From the press reports you give as an example, it seems like Mums advice has been taken, her daughter it is now reported as being 6 months pregnant.

      Perhaps the Council should come up with a solution, Daughter can continue to live with Mum, as she has a spare bedroom in her Council house.

  19. A different Simon
    April 17, 2014

    Of course there is a cost of living crisis .

    It wasn’t created by this Govt but they are have been doing their best to worsen it with wheezes like “help to sell” .

    Saving for old age has all but disappeared and the money which would have eventually generated people a pension will instead be spent servicing mortgages on accommodation / huge rents .

    The so called “living wage” does not include an item for saving for old age .

    The rate of savings needed to make provision for old age and take care of accommodation costs in old age must be included in calculations of the cost of living .

    On a household level the books don’t come anywhere near adding up and it’s about time we stopped pretending they do .

  20. petermartin2001
    April 17, 2014

    “Labourā€™s Great Recession in 2008 smashed living standards. ”

    I know you’re a politician and you have to say these things but I do believe you are intelligent enough to know that it just isn’t true.

    The UK is just a small to medium economy. Even if had it wanted to, the UK government couldn’t have wrecked the USA economy in the way that happened after the Lehman Brothers collapse.

    I you look at the account of the 2008 GFC
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%9308

    You can see barely a mention of the UK! The USA, the Eurozone was doing reasonably well up to 2008. Is it really credible that the undoing of the USA, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal etc was all Gordon Brown’s fault? It shouldn’t be forgotten that the USA had to nationalise their banking system. That happened under a Republican president and Republican Congress.

    There’s only the Socialist Workers Party in Britain who advocate nationalisation of the banks.

    BTW I’m not urging voters to vote Labour at the next election. Their refusal to offer the electorate a referendum on Europe trumps everything else. But, I do believe politics should be conducted in an intelligent fashion, and phrases like “Labourā€™s Great Recession in 2008” and “Labours Crash” are simply not intelligent comments.

    If you analyse the sectoral balances of various countries you can clearly see that the crisis originated in the USA. The private sector was heavily in deficit as early as 1999 under President Clinton. That was the start of the problem. It was kept at bay by creating a credit bubble under President Bush which couldn’t last for ever and it didn’t.

    Reply It is true that the USA made similar mistakes to the UK and also brought down parts of their banking system. Canada shows you did not have to follow suit. I and others warned against the large build up of debt Labour allowed prior to 2007, and I warned against the extreme tightening of money policy in 2008 which brought some of the banks down. This was a UK crisis made in the UK on Labour’s watch.

  21. Gary
    April 17, 2014

    I have been an independent contractor for over 25 years. I have never seen the job market this bad. There are jobs , but there are many,many people chasing those jobs. Rates are down.

    I honestly don’t see this so-called recovery.

    1. libertarian
      April 17, 2014

      Gary

      Depends what field you’re an independent contractor in. The IT sector for instance is growing at 38% in terms of jobs.

      We are struggling to fill many many skilled jobs especially in engineering, insurance, IT and sales. We are also finding it hard to fill apprenticeship roles too although there are some obvious reasons for this in some cases.

      1. Iain Gill
        April 21, 2014

        Re “We are struggling to fill many many skilled jobs” well then you are not offering enough money or an attractive place to work. There is certainly no shortage of British and European IT workers.

        The only people who think there is a shortage of people are folk who want to hire at the same pay rates the Indian outsourcers pay their staff.

  22. Bryan Coombe
    April 17, 2014

    Dear John,

    Its not strange to hear Labour going on about the “cost of living crisis”, they are doing it because they can get away with it. They can get away with because “Dave” blamed the bankers for the crash and the recession and not the Labour party (it was the easy argument to make at the time and Dave does love the easy way out) its the same reason the Tories are stuck behind in the polls no-one gives them the credit for rescuing the economy from labour. Because it was all the bankers fault.

    Regards Bryan

  23. Max Dunbar
    April 17, 2014

    ‘1.5 million additional private sector jobs have been created since the 2010 General Election’.
    Can you estimate what proportion of these private sector jobs depend on the public sector or are, in fact, quasi-public sector jobs in reality? For example, if more than half of a construction company’s contracts are to build hospitals and schools is it still private sector and contributing to the private sector economy?

    1. libertarian
      April 17, 2014

      Max

      Most of the private sector job growth is with SME’s employing less than 50 staff. On the whole they tend not to get too many public sector contracts .

      The job growth is in engineering, manufacturing, IT , insurance mainly so again its not indicative of anything public sector led.

  24. Gareth
    April 17, 2014

    The so called economic recovery will only be noticed by rich people. Also, the next recession is just around the corner and next time it will be so bad we will look back at 2008 – 2010 as the ‘good old days’.

  25. ian wragg
    April 17, 2014

    30.4 million in work. How much has the total population grown since the election. As the workforce has been expanded by 5% due to immigration and the population by 10% then it would be bizarre if the GDP hadn’t risen.
    I suspect the rise in welfare has paid for a lot of it due to the subsidy of minimum wage jobs and welfare to immigrants.
    Per capita is still below 2008 and this is what matters. Most people are not feeling any recovery because its concentrated on the top 10% which is a reason why you will be in opposition in 14 months time despite the silly property boom Gideon has engineered.

  26. a-tracy
    April 17, 2014

    I like to read good news, positive blog posts from you John.
    However, after watching a tv program last night I’m not sure work does pay for everyone. There was a young teachers assistant in London who couldn’t get a council property at low enough rates to leave her mother’s home, even though she’d been working and training full time throughout her 20’s; when a single parent mother of four boys who’d not worked (I think for about 8-10 years that wasn’t clear), no father helping to pay, she was living fully on benefits was given a brand new brilliant home in Tower Hamlets – if I was in my early twenties living in London and you can get Ā£26,000 worth of benefits net I’m not sure I’d work if having a family alone can get you a better standard of living, up to the minute phones and tvs and a brand new house being paid to stay at home and raise your own children being an added incentive, the State now is often a better provider than the father of the children – in these programs you never get to find out where the father was of the most recent 7 month old boy or the eldest 8 year old boy.

    I really strongly believe no one Borough should have more than 10% of the population welfare dependent, every Borough should take a fair share and then unemployment rates would be more evenly spread and the dependency supported more evenly.

  27. Dennis
    April 17, 2014

    “The best way out of poverty is through work.” – which impoverishes the biosphere when billions need work. Politicians don’t realise that work needs energy which comes from natural resources.

    It is the same thing as saying that the way out of poverty is to increase the withdrawal rate from your bank account – it works, up to a point.

    Reply Either you get out of poverty through your own work or through someone else’s work. Whatever point are you trying to make?

    1. ian wragg
      April 17, 2014

      What a silly comment. If we all stop work, I doubt the “biosphere” will flourish and of course we will all starve to death.
      Every creature on earth works to provide food and shelter, it’s what we do. Silly man.

      1. Dennis
        April 17, 2014

        Mr Wragg – as you are seemingly adept at spotting silly comments I am surprised that you didn’t spot your own!

        Where did I say that we should all stop work?

    2. Dennis
      April 17, 2014

      The point is obvious – with present massive populations it is destructive for future generations to keep on with trying to increase wealth for more and more people. Eventually dystopia will result.

      If you don’t ‘believe’ this will happen it is obvious that it will not happen if populations are much smaller which will result in more resources for them obviating the insecurity of too many people chasing limited resources. What present problems will not be alleviated with a smaller population?

    3. Lifelogic
      April 17, 2014

      So what do you want humans to do? All jump of a cliff and let the other animal take over the biosphere perhaps?

  28. Lindsay McDougall
    April 17, 2014

    A good argument. The OBR has put it about that the UK’s fiscal deficit would rocket if there were to be zero net immigration. Germany’s population has been static for 20 years (up a bit then down a bit) yet Germany has enjoyed some GDP growth and definitely GDP growth. Germany has clearly learned to get more out of its labour force, probably by working intelligently.

    We could do the same so the OBR is clearly talking through ……………. The mistake that the OBR has made is to fail to recognise the adaptability of human beings. Why is this? After all, even Governments are sometimes adaptable.

    1. Lindsay McDougall
      April 17, 2014

      Sorry, should read ‘definitely GDP per capita growth’.

  29. petermartin2001
    April 19, 2014

    “Starbucks announced it will transfer its headquarters to the UK, and will as a result pay more tax here.”

    Companies should pay tax in the country in which either the products were created, or the countries in which the profits were earned, if they stick to the rules.

    But if they stick to any rules, they are their own rules. Having an HQ in the UK doesn’t really change anything. Starbuck’s can still move their profits wherever they like in the world simply by use of royalty payments for the use of the Starbucks name. There are many other ways of profit shifting, of course.

    Government could relatively easily fix the problem by abolishing corporation tax, which is based on profits, for companies like Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and the like which aren’t based in the UK but nevertheless do a large amount of business in the UK, with a turnover tax.

    That may not be possible within EU rules. If so it’s just another reason,to add to the list, for leaving.

  30. APL
    April 19, 2014

    JR: “Starbucks announced it will transfer its headquarters to the UK, and will as a result pay more tax here. ”

    That’s great news. Next, perhaps Mrs Hodge could be prevailed upon (get her family company to pay more tax ed)

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businesslatestnews/9668396/Margaret-Hodges-family-company-pays-just-0.01pc-tax-on-2.1bn-of-business-generated-in-the-UK.html

    Reply I have no problem with This company’s tax arrangements,and expect all companies to pay no more tax than they have to by law

  31. Gyges
    April 19, 2014

    “1.5 million additional private sector jobs have been created since the 2010 General Election. ” and is this because of or inspite of your policies?

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