Unemployment - the good and the bad news
The latest official Labour Force statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) would suggest that employment levels have stabilised in the three months to June 2010, with unemployment falling by 49,000, employ-ment rising by 184,000, with 68,000 of them being full-time jobs.
Jim Hillage, director of research at the Institute for Employment Studies observed that while this was encouraging, there was no escaping the fact that the labour market remains fragile, with most of the employment growth coming through temporary positions. He suggests this underlines a lack of confidence among employers.
Another problem is that long-term unemployment growth remains un-checked, with around a third of the unemployed now out of work for more than a year. This is now particularly hitting the over 50s and 43 per cent of the unemployed in that age group have now been out of work for more than a year.
Hillage told Caritas that the impact on the charity sector of the public cuts would affect third sector providers relying on government contracts: ‘Over the next few months the reductions in public expenditure are likely to mean job losses not only across a wide range of public services but also among private and third sector employers who work for the government.
This could severely affect those charities and voluntary organisations who are currently contracted to supply educational or welfare support services just at a time when the demand for their services is likely to rise’, he said.
The CIPD’s quarterly Labour Market Outlook, which includes responses from the voluntary sector, along with the public and private sectors concurs that employment looks stable for the time being, but anticipates further rises in unemployment over the next two years because of the 600,000 public sector job losses the government expects during that period.
www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0810.pdfwww.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/hrtrends/_qtrends.htm
Comments
There are no comments on this article. Be the first to comment.