Millions of Britons are out of work and training, will cutting benefits help the young and unemployed find jobs?(Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
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Is Britain’s job market designed to fail?
Another day, another round of government announcements regarding people on benefits.
Works and pensions minister Liz Kendall wants to ‘get Britain working again,’ highlighting the 2.8million out of work due to long-term sickness (Metro, Wed).
And yet no one ever addresses the fundamental issue that is the lack of jobs for all those who need them.
There are 1.7million people registered as unemployed and claiming Universal Credit but only 831,000 job vacancies, according to government figures.
This leaves around one million people in the impossible position of chasing work that simply isn’t available.
And that’s to say nothing of those out of work who are not claiming benefits for whatever reason, which some reports have put as high as one million.
And then there are the 2.8million off sick or disabled that Ms Kendall wants to get back into work.
This is the great secret of our socio-economic system since 1979 – the oversupply of labour.
This is how wages are held down and workers kept on their toes. And the failure of the left to make mass unemployment a political issue is how the right is able to portray the situation as being due to the failure of individuals or ‘welfare dependency’ rather than a conscious policy of the economic establishment.
‘People on benefits’ have been the national whipping boy for long enough, it’s time politicians started being honest about how our labour market really works. Philip Duval, Manchester
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Source:: Metro