How many people want work but can’t get it? A lot more than you’d think. The unemployment figures never tell us the full story about recessions, the true measure of how many men and women are frozen out of jobs is always much higher. By the middle of 2009 there were four and a half…
According to the Guardian, the Conservative are considering handing over to local authorities the power to set the rates for working age benefits. This isn’t just a silly season story – Lord Hanningfield, who proposed the notion isn’t just the leader of Essex County Council, he’s also the Conservative spokesperson on business in the House…
New data suggests that the picture I painted earlier on in the month of steady progress in narrowing the disability employment gap was a little simplistic. Nigel Meager, from the Institute for Employment Studies has pointed out that using the figures for a different definition of disability actually shows a decline in disabled people’s employment…
Read the TUC Recession Report for July 2009 Today we publish our latest Recession Report, which focuses on how disabled people have fared over the last ten years and the story so far of how the recession has affected them. In the report we look at employment and unemployment rates, and the ‘disability gaps’ –…
With James Purnell’s leaving the Government, there is an opportunity to sit back and think about the Welfare Reform Bill. Will Yvette Cooper, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions keep up the pressure for this legislation?
Read the TUC Recession Report for May 2009 In today’s Recession Report we analyse the most recent labour market statistics and look at how the recession has been affecting young people. This month we take a closer look at some of the main statistics. We explain, for instance, the difference between how the employment level…
The latest child poverty figures were very disappointing; it is time to insist that there is no solution to children’s poverty that ignores the poverty of their parents. Last week the newspapers gave the Government a kicking thoroughly examined the figures from the latest Households Below Average Income report. The focus for the comments was…
Read the TUC Recession Report for April 2009 Today we have published our sixth Recession Report, where we analyse the most recent labour market statistics. What has been happening? It is not a pretty picture; the number of unemployed people and the proportion of the workforce who are unemployed have both risen, the number in…
The Budget’s new programme for unemployed young people is very welcome, and bears a certain resemblance to the TUC’s proposals for an intermediate labour market programme, but I can’t help being disappointed by the non-action on child poverty. Like other organisations in the End Child Poverty coalition, the TUC called for a £3 billion investment…
I see that the Conservatives have decided that the cut in VAT is a ‘con’ because rich people gain more from it than poor people. Well, in a sense, that is obvious: rich people have more money to spend than poor people, so they pay more in VAT. But if you care about whether a tax…