http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/02/underemployment-and-the-want-work-level/ Policy news and comment from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:54:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/02/underemployment-and-the-want-work-level/comment-page-1/#comment-6592 Fighting the structural causes of involuntary idleness (also by Robin Hood Tax) | pratichesociali Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:36:14 +0000 http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/?p=6036#comment-6592 [...] The figures for involuntary idleness make for stark reading. If you add together the number of unemployed people (2.5 million) to the number of people who are classed as economically inactive, but who want work (2.3 million), you get a total of 4.8 million people who are forced to be idle (in the narrow sense of not having a job). Add to that 2.8 million people who are underemployed (who would like an extra job, a different job with longer hours, or more hours in their current job), and it’s clear that involuntary idleness is endemic. Perhaps most shockingly, during a decade and a half of growth since the last recession, involuntary idleness never dropped below 3.7 million, and underemployment never fell below 1.9 million. [...] [...] The figures for involuntary idleness make for stark reading. If you add together the number of unemployed people (2.5 million) to the number of people who are classed as economically inactive, but who want work (2.3 million), you get a total of 4.8 million people who are forced to be idle (in the narrow sense of not having a job). Add to that 2.8 million people who are underemployed (who would like an extra job, a different job with longer hours, or more hours in their current job), and it’s clear that involuntary idleness is endemic. Perhaps most shockingly, during a decade and a half of growth since the last recession, involuntary idleness never dropped below 3.7 million, and underemployment never fell below 1.9 million. [...]

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