Thoughts on this morning's employment data from the ONS:
The evidence that the UK is far from fair is plain to see.
Where are the politicians saying that?
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The ONS are preaching to the converted here – I know this as fact – exacerbated by so many people leaving the public sector and leaving behind so many vacancies.
BTW – loved your heterodox comments in the Guardian.
Thanks
You’re looking at two completely different things.
The first shows TOTAL hours worked by ALL workers – and there are more workers in 2022 than there were in 2007.
The second is AVERAGE wages.
Did you not spot this or did you spot it and are deliberately trying to mislead people?
And where is your evidence that landlords, for example, are earning more reward than in earlier years? You have none, of course, and are just trying to stir up hate. What a nasty little man you are.
So, we are working harder, as I said, and the rear5d is falling, as I said
According to ONS figures, the average working week in 2007 for full time workers was 37.3 hours. In 2022 (to date) it was 36.2 hours. It’s down from 38.8 hours in 1997. On average people are working shorter hours.
I suppose because these are ONS figures that don’t fit your narrative, you will dismiss them.
No: I note everyone I know working more hours, not paid
The narrative fits
Personal abuse for what reason? I have worked all my life, and over the past 20 years I have first hand experience of how it works. You are expected to work over your contracted hours to ensure that all the work is done. This is not in your contract, or if it is, it is worded in the as many hours as the company require. You are seldom, if ever, paid for these extra half hours, 15 minutes, which all add up. The veiled threat of loosing your job hangs over you if you decide not to work extra. Due to running businesses with minimal staff you always run out of time to complete your tasks, hence having to stay back to catch up. If you have been lucky enough to avoid this, fair play, but resorting to personal abuse to cover up your lack of knowledge is a little bit cowardly, in my opinion.
What a nasty little man you are – you were looking in the mirror when you wrote that.
The rentier class are parasites. I have written this before but it needs to be stated once again – in 97 Tony the Liar and Gordon Brown had every chance to reset life in the UK but they were only masquerading as socialists Tony now has a £30 million + property empire.
On day one they could have put a capital gains tax on all property transactions, removed all BTL tax advantages. Uprated all the Building codes. Made property maintenance obligatory and to a high standard. Instigated meaningful rent controls. Every country in the EU has ‘real’ rent controls – I rent a 3 bedroomed detached house with internal garage and gardens in a small peaceful, virtually crime free town in SW France for €650 p.m. I pay no council tax equivalent, only the landlord pays a property tax/tax fonciere. Soon it will not be possible to rent a house that has’nt been renovated and insulated to a high standard – what a difference with the UK.
Long ago (end of the 70s’) I worked in the Netherlands and back then you could own as many houses as you liked but you could only live in one aka no second homes. If you owned a house with apartments, you could choose tenants for 50% and the other 50% were chosen by the gemente/council who fixed the rents.
If the above measures had been introduced in 97 the price of property would be totally different today – the cost of living far lower and the UK would be far more competitive and a much happier place to live. I can’t ever imagine going back to live in the UK, I wish you all luck – your going to need it.
I think you overstate your case
There will, in the end, be only two ways this can go – assuming that Starmer is what he seems to be, Tory-lite. The far more likely one is that this country sinks into destitution, ruled by a party led by, and funded by, plutocrats. The possibility that an even further right wing party arises rapidly is greater. The second is that civil unrest explodes into unmanageable insurrection. Given the Tories’ connections, the USA might be asked for ‘tactical support’ for LaunchPad 1 (us). Equally, we will find out just how much money has been pumped into the fringe right.
I can’t see this ending even vaguely well. My daughter (NHS) gives the NHS at most a year under Sunak/Hunt.
Will Sunak and Hunt last a year? Apart from that, though, I more or less agree.
Steve Lavell
What does the number of contracted full time hours have to do with the number of hours worked? Unpaid (or paid overtime, part time contracts with more hours and zero hour contracts with more hours all go to make up the number of hours worked.
Cyndy, I am sorry to say, but I think you missed Steve’s point, that no matter how the salami is sliced, the worker is getting shafted. Unless I missed your point.
Steve’s point is that, as full time contracts are getting shorter, people are woeking fewer hours. It doesn’t matter what the contract may say. People are working longer hours without pay.
If you are a teacher and do lots of work at home after the school day has ended those hours don’t get counted.
I remember in the 80s a new contract came out which said teachers had to work as many hours as the head saw fit.
Good morning Richard ,
I have been wondering whether this is particularly pertinent to the public sector, so would be curious as to what percentage of your readership is employed in public sector roles, and what their ‘lived’ experience is of this change in working hours expectations ?
I have no idea
I do not monitor my readership and have no desire to do so
It seems certain our government is bent on sabotaging every aspect of the productive process by cutting public spending ,raising taxes and putting up the cost of borrowing. The result will inevitably create a recession. People are already short of money because their pay has been stagnating for decades.They will have nothing to spend in the shops .That will lead to business closures and workers will lose their jobs. The same policies have been implemented in the past . They always make things worse. The Tories ,as they always do are spinning the falsehood of a wage /price spiral . How can that be possible on poverty pay. I have worried for some time about a return to the hell that was the 1930s. The same symptoms are in place. I know it sounds ridiculous in 2022 but those of us who loved though the 1960s would never have believed we would see thousands of our fellow citizens going hungry if they can ‘t find a charity to give them food. Who then would have thought young people would be barred from buying a home of their own. I was the eldest of five. Every one of us had our own home before the age of 30. Surely, the blueprint for recovery lies in what the Attlee Government implemented in 1945. The country was bankrupt but the NHS was created. MIllions of council houses were built. I just cannot see the logic in manufacturing a Depression.