Not a good time to be a NEET.

Published youth unemployment figures are often misleading because they usually include full-time students who are seeking or are in-between temporary jobs and also because now, many young workers in sectors shut down by Covid 9, may be furloughed in ‘zombie jobs’, unlikely to exist when the job protection measures end. But latest statistics for NEETs, (those … Continue reading Not a good time to be a NEET. →

PSE Online Discussion Responding to the White Paper

Young people – unemployed and underemployed.

As has been the case for some time, the monthly ONS statistics, released this week, don’t provide an accurate account of what’s really happening in the labour market -- everything continues to be distorted by the fact that up to 4 million are estimated to be furloughed. It's complicated further, because employers have much greater … Continue reading Young people – unemployed and underemployed. →

Williamson’s White Paper: ‘Skills Without Jobs’?

The much-awaited White Paper skills-for-jobs-lifelong-learning-for-opportunity-and-growthDownload has been published this week. It's a long and tedious read, but here's an initial response. Rather than just summarising the contents, it seeks to provide some context. Almost every serious analysis of changes in the occupational structure at the start of the 21st century recognises an increased polarisation of … Continue reading Williamson’s White Paper: ‘Skills Without Jobs’? →

Student resistance grows, but real alternatives still needed for the Covid Generation

See articles from latest edition at http://post16educator.org.uk/ Post-16 Educator Issue 102, January to March 2021 Winter has closed in on the ‘CovidGeneration’. Youth unemployment continues to creep up, with over 10 percent of 18-24 year-olds not in full-time educationofficially out of work in the period August to October2020, and another 15 per cent categorised as‘economically … Continue reading Student resistance grows, but real alternatives still needed for the Covid Generation →

Labour and the economy.

What should we make of Anneliese Dodd’s first big speech, last week, on Labour’s economic policies? The Financial Times (Jan 13th) considered it part of the process of making Labour more ‘responsible’, while parts of the Corbynista press have framed it as yet another example of the Party’s ‘move to the right’. They cite Dodd’s … Continue reading Labour and the economy. →

Review: Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work

Verso 2020 Aaron Benanav is becoming a cult figure with parts of the Left. His short, but intriguing book sets out to refute arguments that capitalist economies are experiencing profound changes in the production process because of automation. Rather than a Second Machine Age or a Fourth Industrial Revolution creating a new ‘technological unemployment’, the … Continue reading Review: Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work →

What about the College of the Future?

Shaking the magic money tree

As this nifty little chart, courtesy of the FT shows, despite denials, the government has been doing what it said it would never do. The huge increase in borrowing needed to support the economy during the Covid crisis, largely equates with the amount of public debt bought back by the ‘independent’ Bank of England. Whereas … Continue reading Shaking the magic money tree →