Extent and Causes of Unemployment and Inactivity in the UK Today Essay

An providence commonwealth can be divided into dickens groups, the economically diligent and those economically tranquil. The efficiently Active is referred to the resolve of a viewries population that is exiting and able to realize. This includes those that atomic number 18 idle and those that be currently and actively engaged in a particular logical argu custodyt. The localize of unemploy march forcet is defined as the percentage of the unemployed that ar unemployed and actively seeking for one. In this essay, I am going to discuss the extent of unemployment in the UK today.I am going to critically address the extent of unemployment by compargon geographical regions, sex, race, age groups and learningal achievement. thusly in order to cogitate the extent of unemployment, I volition argue about the true direct of unemployment principaling both(prenominal) the weaknesses LSF and Claimant Count in measuring these challenges. The second percentage of this essay , I will state the 3 perk ups of unemployment in the UK and 3 reasons for inactivity. Then I shall evaluate the credible of the Coalitions The dally create by mental act.Unemployment occurs when a person who is actively searching for urinate but unable to bump one. In the UK today the current rate of unemployment is 8. 3% according to the line of National Statistics (ONS). It int blocks that at that place is a 17 course of instructions high unemployment in the UK. The UK unemployment rose by 129,000 in the three months to September to 2. 62 jillion kindredwise young unemployment is now at 1. 02 million. there argon quad master(prenominal) types of unemployment. There argon two different mea certain of unemployment in the UK today. They ar the Claimant Count and International Labour Organisation (ILO) LFS survey.The Claimant count is UKs just about timely measure. It measures the amount of hoi polloi who be claiming benefit but atomic number 18 actively seeking emp loyment. It does non take into consideration of those on disability benefit neither does it take account of great deal who do non claim the allowance. ILO take aims use of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to measures ein truthone without a chore and has looked for dress in the past four weeks and willing to start piss in the next two weeks. Unemployed persons include those who did non report at all during the survey week, and who were looking for work.The faults in these two measures bring up the question of the extent and the true level of unemployment in the UK today. The Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) is means-tested and it depends on household income, this means husband or wife who contract partner earning above a certain income argon not included. It also does include people under the age of 18, thereof excluding 16 and 17 years olds who left education at post-16, this part of the economy should not be ignored by the JSA because these groups of individuals usually exper ience low-levels of human capital there for potentially high unemployment rate amongst these groups. juicy youth unemployment shows underlying structural occupations in the UK today. Therefore the JSA does not rede the true level of unemployment because there are people seeking work and are not included in JSA or/and counted as unemployed. The formalized measure also has its own faults. The LFS survey is a monthly questionnaire of 60,000 people. They are asked if they look at been searching for work and would be able to take up work in the next two weeks. This measure usually gives a higher figure than the claimant count.Although the questions asked sticks to the UKs definition of unemployment there are also problems with the measure. The survey has potential for error in sampling data in sampling 60,000 people and even most importantly people major(ip) power not actually say the truth about their situation. Apart from the faults in the measures of unemployment, another issue is that there is a possibility that those classed as unemployed might actual be working. There will be a population of the economic inactive that receives unemployment benefit but still work in the black economy. accord to the ONS, an individual is defined as Economical Inactive when they are not in work and do not meet the internationally agreed definition of unemployment. They are people without farm outs who have not actively sought work in the last four weeks and/or are not available to start work in the next two weeks. Inactivity in the UK accounts for 21. 3% of the working age-adults. The economically inactive include students, the sick and disabled retirees, home cook uprs and people who have not searched for jobs in the last 4 weeks the main issue in the UK are these groups who are voluntary unemployment.ONS There are different viewpoints that will be addressed in evaluating the extent of unemployment amongst gender, geographical regions, race, age and educational attainment . ONS statistics show that the extent of unemployment amongst region varies in the UK. Over the period of July to September, this year, the highest unemployment rate was wedlock East with 11. 6% of the population unemployed. It is followed by Yorkshire and Humber with 10. 6% of their economically active population. Over the same time period the south-east had the least rate of 6. 3 per cent.In the case of gender, In April 2011 female unemployment went up by 64,000, while male unemployment went down by 69,000. Despite this statistics, the unemployment rate for men has risen faster than that of women while the economic upturns of males have dropped faster than that of females. Unemployment amongst Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups is the highest amongst people of different races with unemployment rate. The lowest are the whites British. Unemployment amongst people in more thanover education is that they are more wishly to be unemployment than university graduates over non-graduates.T here has been a late(a) media attention to unemployment amongst 16-24 year old which has recently hit a record high with 20. 6% of that population without jobs. other age group that is highly affect are the over 50s, according to AgeUK, this age group is currently suffering from a 10 year high which most likely will be those in in prospicient limit unemployment. I stipendl the organisation moldiness lay down a good foundation for a fall in job market for older people before forcing them to work longer. peerless of the Coalition establishment strategies to tackle this is The give way Programme which I am going to evaluate its effectiveness and credibility later in this essay. There are many causes of unemployment for example, turning point, lack of skills, and lack of information, over-regulating, decline in industries, willingness to work and discriminating itemors. Cause of Inactivity on the other hand is disability and self-indulgence of the welfare system toward the vo luntary capable economically inactive. inletal is a downturn in the economy of a country.Its a drastic fall in countries GDP. iodine of the causes of unemployment In the UK today is the recent recession according to the BBC the recent recession had a deep feign on jobs. According to the CIPD, the recession cause a loss of 1. 3 million jobs. The reason why unemployment rises is because during a recession, output and demand falls, firms cost optimize by cutting down on unnecessary expenditure or they option optimise by reduce unnecessary workforce. The effect of resource optimisation proceeds to a rise in unemployment as there are less job positions in the economy.When unemployment increases, this can worsen the recession since there will be lower aggregate demand and lower developing rates in the economy. Although one can argue that the UK economy has survived the recession we are still existence affected by loss of jobs that the 2008 recession caused. Generally, I think the economic decline is one of the main causes of unemployment today. some other cause of unemployment is the lack of demand for workers. The demand for worker is derived from the demand for goods and go and then the bigger issue might be people not spending.This is a big issue because of the lack of jobs that people want. The government is nerve-wracking to depart the inactive active and the unemployed employed but the question is that are there any jobs for these people after they have been apt? One could argue that it is because businesses are not creating jobs there they are very few jobs that people might want to do in the economy. The leniency of the benefit system in the UK is the main cause of inactivity. deal recognise that with jobs they can depend on the welfare state.The government aim to get people out of poverty can also affect the economy because of the unemployment trap. This is a situation whereby unemployment benefit acts as a deterrent or causes lack of motiva tion for an unemployed or an inactive individual in the labour to take up jobs or advantage his skills or perchance in the case of an inactive individual gain necessary skills to interpose the job market. Another cause of inactivity is disability in the UK. People claiming disability and sick benefit, these groups of people are also class. Another cause of inactivity is people retiring (65% men and 62% women).Apart from this, men are more likely than females to be classed as sick or disabled but women are more likely than men to be looking after the home and family. Statistics show that 26% of UK economically inactive people would like to work. Another main cause is the lack of education and training, especially currently in the UK, the government scrapping schemes like Education caution Allowance (EMA), this will act as a disincentive for people wanting to entering education. With issues such as this, young people will be affected because the lack of post-16 education will mean they are more likely to end up in a dead end job.There are special skills needful for certain type of jobs. To render a doctor, one has to go through years of education to be full qualified. The years of education and training are their specialist skills are gained. Statistics show that the opt-in rates of people entering into higher education will reduce because of the lack of EMA which might affect these people that refuse to get in in education in the coming(prenominal). The Work Programme is a major new payment-for-results welfare-to-work course of instruction Along with the Universal Credit benefit reforms, it is central to the Coalition Governments ambitious programme of welfare reform. The straightforward aim of the programme is to cut down the United Kingdom long-run unemployment. The strategy the coalitional government is to pay surreptitious firms to suck up the process easier. The government believes it will be cheaper in the long run to pay these private firm s rather than pay for benefits. According to the programme, an estimated 605,000 people will go through the programme. In 2011/2012 in the year 2012/13 it aims at 565,000. Providers include companies like Working Links, Triage A4E, Serco and many more. The government has awarded a least two suppliers in every region.These private firms the government outsources the job is referred to as providers. Providers are paid totally on results. The idea is to create for the workers a sustainable job outcome for those participating. The longer an individual stays in work the more the providers get paid, whence creating an incentive for these firms to provide continuous support for musician. One could argue that the scheme helps tackle the challenges of unemployment because there are special skills needed for certain type of jobs. The problem with The Work Programme is that it could be used to generate cheap labour for dead-end jobs.Because it will be base on payment by results, the provi ders will do their best to make sure they are correct and therefore get their fee. Another problem with the scheme is that it doesnt have much difference from other schemes. I think it will strengthen the competition for job ready participant and these are people who are likely to have got the jobs anyways. The difference is that the provider will be able to claim a larger fee compared to previous schemes. There are few other problems with this reform, this reform is for the most part untested and it is not big enough of a scale to make a serious dent in the problem.The worry is that providers will end up picking individuals who are more likely to get jobs and therefore ignore the unemployment black spots. Another issue with it is that there is an arrogance that unemployed are bunch of people that ready to work. The vast mass of unemployed are involuntary, many have the treat skills and in the wrong geographical location. Also some of these people are ill wellness to be at work. According to the study done by the capital of the United Kingdom School of Economics it showed that the providers will miss the set targets by 90%.I think the introduction of ruthless competition could also lead to companies going after the same jobs and therefore not benefitting people that it was for in the starting signal place. It could end up being a revenue or sales maximisation aims rather than actual target people like the long term unemployed who are further down the unemployment scale. For The Work Programme to really succeed, I think these organisations need to make sure they take on people that have been in long term unemployment people that have grown comfortable with life on benefits.The government also needs to start creating jobs. One can question the fact the scheme will succeed when there isnt actual jobs for these people in the origin place or at least job that they want to do. With the average of six to every vacancy the government has got a lot to do. Accordi ng to a new investigate by the friendly Market Foundation (SMF), the paper is called, Will the Work Programme work? This paper scrutinises the viability of the Work Programme by predicting the performance of the firms providing the programme during its first three years of it being active.This forecast will be establish on the welfare-to-work scheme called the Flexible New Deal. This is the predecessor to the Work Programme. According SMF analysis, it suggests that the providers will not meet their set minimum expectations in the first 2 years of the programme and even in the third year 22 out of the 24 FND providers would fail to meet the requirements for the scheme. The department has jeopardize to lapse the contract of providers who dont meet the benchmark set. This further threatened the credibility of the scheme.According to the Chris Grayling, the Employment Minister states that dismiss this research as flawed. He claimed that it is possible to compare DWP to FND. His argum ent is centred nigh the fact that FND involves different groups of Jobseekers to DWP and therefore one should not compare both schemes. One can argue that the Flexible New Deal is more effective because its analysis is carefully based on comparable groups of long term unemployment which is the target group helped by the DWP. Although these groups of job seeker are easily comparable, the different between the schemes remain.Even on the optimistic assumption, it concludes these DWP performances are not realistic for most providers. The Work and Pension committee of the suffer of Commons recently demand clarity over the Work programme have come up with these challenging target and many of the providers have expressed their doubts the unrealistic targets of the scheme. Also in the recent economic climate, claimant count has increased by a significant value since the bid of the Work Programme were invited and I think dont think the future is precarious or do not agree on its being a cr edible solution.I also think to find a credible solution to tackling unemployment. DWP has to revise its minimum performance expectations and perhaps represent a more credible incentive for its providers. It could also establish great transparency about how to derive its estimates of minimum performance and also make clear how this might vary if economic condition deteriorates this will therefore create greater accountability and certainty. When this is done, I think The Work Programme will then be a credible solution to tackling unemployment.