Too much of the increase in employment is down to unstable, poorly paid jobs that don't take people out of poverty
Theresa May opened her first Prime Minister’s Questions with a celebration of the ONS jobs figures released this morning.
And indeed, they show that a record number of people are in employment. However, any deeper analysis of the state of UK employment undermines her claim that the Conservatives are building ‘an economy for everyone’.
Analysis published by the IFS yesterday showed that two thirds of children below the government’s absolute poverty line are poor are poor despite the fact that at least one of their parents is in work.
In other words, the much-heralded increases in employment are not reducing rates of poverty and the IFS describes increasing the incomes of poor families as the government’s ‘big challenge on living standards.
‘Tackling low income is increasingly about tackling the problems faced by low-earning working households,’ commented associate IFS director Robert Joyce. ‘Ultimately substantial progress will depend crucially on economic policies that push up productivity.
‘Economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote will only serve to make these challenges all the tougher.’
The prime minister should also pay more attention to the huge increases in self-employment, which account for much of the increase in employment. This trend is not attributable to greater entrepreneurship, but to more workers signing unstable contracts with fewer rights, less pay and little job security.
‘We need more decent jobs,’ commented TUC general secretary Frances O’ Grady in response to the ONS figures. ‘Not working conditions like those exposed at the courier firm Hermes these week, where workers were pushed on to self-employed contracts with fewer rights.’
For months, employment figures have offered the Tories something to crow about while the country collapsed, and working people around the country battled to make ends meet.
May, who is keen to paint herself as a social justice warrior, must be pressed to explain why she’s bragging about new jobs that aren’t actually bringing the most vulnerable out of poverty.
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14 Responses to “May brags about record employment — but what are those jobs really worth?”
Brumanuensis
Richard MacKinnon
“So the guy that invented the Dyson vacum cleaner, (cant remember his name) didnt create a demand he only “satisfies demand by using the mechanics of `the market.” whatever that means”.
Yes, Patrick Newman is right. Dyson didn’t create demand for his product; he satisfied a consumer demand for better hoovers by designing a new and superior-quality hoover. At the moment you appear to be advancing an argument known as ‘Say’s Law’ which is now considered discredited by most economists. Basically, you’re arguing ‘supply creates its own demand’, which it doesn’t usually. Unless products meet a particular market need, then regardless of how well-designed they are, they won’t sell.
Richard MacKinnon
Brumanuensis,
You know so much you even think you know what I’m arguing, that “‘supply creates its own demand’, which it doesn’t usually”. You even have a name for it “Says Law” and that what I am thinking is now “discredited”.
For a start I am definately not arguing that “‘supply creates its own demand’,” because that just does not make sense. That is so bonkers it is laughable. Infact the opposite is the case, a lack of supply can create demand. As for “Dyson didn’t create demand for his product; he satisfied a consumer demand for better hoovers” What does that mean? Do you think the demand for a new type of carpet cleaner came before Dyson invented a Dyson? That there was ground swell of public opinion that demanded a better carpet cleaner because all the vacum cleaners up to that point were all useless?
Brumanuensis, please think before you write you are starting to sound like a demented John McDonnell.
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