The Costs of Unemployment is a new TUC report, published today that looks at the costs to individuals and society. We believe that the facts and figures we report lead to a political imperative: all politicians have a duty to make unemployment their first priority. The facts are shocking. To quote just a handful:

• Unemployed people are twice as likely as others to suffer frequent mental distress and twice as likely to suffer short-term depression.
• Unemployment increases the risk of marital dissolution by 70%.
• Unemployed people are twice as likely to be unhappy.
• A 1% increase in unemployment is associated with a 0.79% increase in homicides.
• Unemployed people much more likely to be the victims of crime – and more than twice as likely to be the victims of violent crime.
• The death rate for the children of long-term unemployed parents is thirteen times as high as for the children of whose parents worked in higher managerial or professional occupations. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Inequality, Labour market, Politics, Welfare, unemployment | No Comments »

Download the 16th TUC Recession Report

Today we’ve published our 16th and final Recession Report. From next month we will be moving to a shorter monthly Labour Market Report and a bi-monthly Economic Report. The latest labour market figures cover the
period October to December 2009, and show that 2,457,000 people were unemployed by the ILO measure − down 1,000 (effectively unchanged) compared with last month’s release, which covered September – November. Youth unemployment fell a little, with 725,000 18 – 24 year olds unemployed – 3,000 fewer than last month. Overall, these are quite good results – especially the fall in youth unemployment – but it is far too early to say we no longer need to worry about employment. Read more »

   Filed under: Equality, Labour market, Recession, Recession Report | 1 Comment »

Looks like we had it wrong all along. It must be a middle class recession – the Job Centre have just launched an iPhone app.

Meanwhile, outside the Twittersphere… Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Recession | No Comments »

We’ve just published a new review of the impacts that the recent downturn has had for women at work, and examining how proposed public sector cuts might have a heavy impact on working women and families.

I’ve written a post about the issue for Progress Online, which you can read over here.

   Filed under: Equality, Labour market, Public services, Public spending, Recession, unemployment | 1 Comment »

New research shows that Pathways to Work – the Government’s main employment programme for disabled people – is being undermined by the determination to contract-out provision to private and voluntary sector organisations. The people who need the most help are losing out as a result and the pressure on resources is hurting the quality of the programme. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Privatisation | No Comments »

Government claims that ‘paid work is the route to independence, health and well-being for most people’. But research we carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that poor quality work does not always provide these benefits. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Quality of work | 3 Comments »

Unemployment has been quite stable since last summer, with another small fall in today’s figures. As Nicola has reported, the results so far have been nowhere near as bad as most people expected at the start of the recession. It isn’t surprising that many people ask whether the unemployment figures tell the whole story – how much ‘hidden unemployment’ is there?

What would ‘hidden unemployment’ mean? In the labour market statistics, everyone of working age is given one of three labels: employed, unemployed or ‘economically inactive’. Obviously, unemployed people aren’t hidden, but some people counted as employed or economically inactive can be. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market | No Comments »

Some media coverage of today’s statistics suggests that unemployment is now rising sharply again. While future redundancies remain likely, and the ILO measure (which has fallen for 4 out of the 5 previous months) may well increase into 2010, the reality is that despite seeing record GDP falls, the labour market impacts of the recession have been nowhere near as bad as previous downturns. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Recession | 2 Comments »

This week the Marmot Review, the Department of Health’s Strategic Review of Health Inequalities, was published. Its remit was to “focus on the social determinants of health and in particular, the way they influence health inequalities”. A review that starts with quote from Pablo Neruda seems unlikely to be limited in its scope, and the Marmot Review does not disappoint, taking a forensic and brutally honest look at the reality of the social causes of ill health.

The review identifies six policy recommendations, which reflect a life course perspective, recognising that disadvatage starts before birth and accumulates throughout life. All are important, in particular Policy Objective C, which calls for the creation of “fair employment and good work for all” in recognition of the reality that:

Work is good – and unemployment bad – for physical and mental health, but the quality of work matters. Getting people off benefits and into low paid, insecure and health-damaging work is not a desirable option

Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Vulnerable workers | 1 Comment »

The IFS data - which I looked at yesterday - also has a useful table showing which sectors have seen growth in public sector staff since 1997, and by how much.

The small-state right would like us to think that these were all pen-pushers – somewhat oddly as I doubt that many people in either the private or public sector have a pen as their main workplace tool any more.

And of course efficient public services need their share of administrators and managers too. I suspect most people would prefer to get a renewed passport on time, rather than be told we’ve shut the passport service down as it was full of bureaucrats. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Public services, Public spending | No Comments »