FULL EMPLOYMENT
The government proudly announce that they have created 2 milllion new jobs, bringing the total to over 28 million full and part time jobs in all, which they say shows that 75% of people of working age are now employed. They then go on to show that less than 1 million are claiming Job Seekers Allowance, but that there are 2.7 million claimants of Incapacity Benefit.
On the face of it, this would seem to indicate that there are a total of some 3.7 million people either too ill to work or unable to find it. Of course, very many of these claimants are genunely sick or suffering some sort of chonic illness, but when you consider that there are reckoned to be in excess of 2 million people working in the black economy, i.e unregisterd, untaxed, cash in hand jobs, then you begin to understand why there are 600,000 unfilled vancancies on offer.
How many people do you know who work in the black, unofficial economy, maybe in the hotel and catering industry, building trade, painting and decorating, seasonal farm work, cockle -picking or indeed prostitution? It would seem that the British have never worked so hard, or been so well paid.
