Yet again, this week’s unemployment figures sparked reams of commentary on the 0.1 percentage point fall in unemployment. But, while observers are understandably drawn toward these marginal changes, it’s important to focus on the big number: 2.5 million unemployed – 892,000 more than in 2008 – and to reaffirm the basic fact that unemployment is an economic problem with social consequences, not vice versa.
Both public attitudes and policymaking are still stuck in a mindset which belongs in the past and, instead of blaming the economy and economic policy for high unemployment, welfare policy is blamed instead.
The country’s policy for dealing with unemployment is inherently built for the good years, and presumes at its core that unemployment is a social or personal failure. Both discourse and policy fail to fundamentally account for an era of low growth and persistent high unemployment, as well as the blurred lines between the unemployed workforce and those in low-paid work. As such, policy is ill-equipped to support the unemployed workforce of post-crash Britain, a fact which has important implications for the role of job centres.
The current chaos
Jobcentres and their staff are under an immense amount of pressure. Those who are unemployed rely on them to assist in finding a job, and for advice and training in a difficult labour market. Those people, who have just lost their job or recently left education, and are walking for the first time into their local job centre, will see first-hand the consequences of policy failing to get with the times, and to be more responsive to the needs of the new unemployed citizen. Both the current system and the reforms being made to it focus on economic incentives, transactions and conditionality, which together reinforce an already-malign and potentially counterproductive top-down relationship which society and the state has with those who are unemployed.
However, by building the job centre around the citizen, who by right holds the responsibility and decision-making power over their situation, reforms can move on to the right track. Vital work on ‘relational welfare’ has already been undertaken, offering solid policy foundations for reforms to the job centre, while pilots which put individuals in charge of their situation appear at this stage to have been positive. And so, when reforms to the job centre are being looked at, the solid foundations of citizen-centred welfare are there from which to draw, with real policies both pitched and already piloted.
A way forward
Commentators focus on marginal changes, but the most important facts in this week’s unemployment figures remain unchanged, and will remain unchanged for some time; they signify the uncomfortable fact that intolerably high unemployment will be with us for the near future.
With that in mind, the starting point of reforms to the job centre should be a real understanding of who it is that’s currently unemployed and why; instead of blaming the unemployed for the state of the economy, we should put those citizens in charge of their situation.
—————————————————————————————
Luke Raikes is a researcher at IPPR North. He tweets @lukeraikes
—————————————————————————————
What is a well thought out article doing on the Progress website?
@CK : Stick to the day-job.
Not to dodge any issues here, the above article is well thought out but to my mind the writer doesn’t offer any solutions or advice to the citizenry who are desperate to find work.
I would say that to get more citizens in to work, currently, it be suggested to the relevant DWP Minister(s) that people in [one] work position be restricted to that [one] job. MPs cannot be a G.P. at one and the same time, an accounts clerk cannot hold a day job as well as a job in the evening working as a barperson. Workshare should be re-visited with a LABOURITE eye and not jaundiced millionaires’ viewpoints.
Of course its not quite as simple as all that. But to get the trolley moving again [quickly!] the country needs to share work out for ALL to be able to get some cash in and to get off the Dole. Stacking cans of beans with a Masters degree &PhD is an absolute waste of resource.
It is a quick temporary fix [probably a crackpot fix] but it would tide the country over this blip in the availability of Jobs in the UK currently. (It would apply in Europe and the USA as well as here).
The LABOUR Party has to ensure the Tories are booted out in 2015.
we, as their LOYAL SUPPORTERS must assist our leaders wherever possible.
@CK: Leave poncey comments to those qualified to be Ponces.
The people without work are not the problem, and talking about them – whether you “blame” them or not – is a diversion. The economy is not generating work for people to do, nor paying many of those who do work enough to live. Therefore we need to create more work, or redistribute the existing work, or accept that some people don’t work but still have to live. Or some combination. Nobody in politics wants to do any of this, so they talk about something else and hope the people won’t notice.
Working so far.