A Job guarantee scheme not ‘Kickstart’

Faced with the threat of a huge rise in youth unemployment in the final quarter of 2020, Chancellor Sunak set up Kickstart. Providing £2billion funding to create sixth month job placements for 16- to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment,  Employers of all sizes were encouraged to apply for funding … Continue reading A Job guarantee scheme not ‘Kickstart’ →

‘Closing the gap’—education and social mobility.

 The fight for ‘equal opportunities’ has been a  major aim of education reformers and campaigners. A fairer education system has also been considered integral if ‘social mobility’ is to be increased. But for years, researchers have reaffirmed the importance of social background and social origin on school performance, arguing that ‘education cannot compensate for society’. … Continue reading ‘Closing the gap’—education and social mobility. →

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. →

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 →