Turning Tide?

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In the period September to November 2009 the UK unemployment figure fell by 7,000, the first fall in nearly 18 months. Some are heralding this as a sign that tide has turned and that the real economy is recovering, but how much should we read into the statistics?

Since the summer of 2008 when the recession started, each quarter has shown a rise in the number of unemployed, so this latest figure alone has to be taken as a positive sign, particularly since it is accompanied by drops in the employment rate, in the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance, and in the number of 16-24 year olds out of work.

However, these statistics do not take into account the 21% of British residents who declared themselves neither unemployed nor looking for work, and that undeniably distorts the picture. Further, almost all of the statistics represented very small positive changes.

But is this a one-off figure? The period up to November is growing closer to the festive period when companies traditionally take on temporary staff that they may not keep in the New Year. Likewise individual factors such as temporary staff taken on to deal with the postal strike may also be a factor. More significantly there was a massive rise in people taking part-time work, largely because they couldn''t find full-time work, and whilst some employment is better than no employment, it''s not often a long term solution.

It''s also not good for the wider picture if people are only staying in jobs because they are accepting lower wages and shorter hours in place of redundancy. Again, having a job is better than not having a job, but it may not prove a long term solution.

Experts suggest that for the recovery to continue, the wider economy would need to recover, meaning that companies need to take on more staff and at present that looks unlikely. One encouraging sign, however, is that the number of advertised vacancies rose by 16,000 compared with the previous quarter.

Possible comfort can be found in the number of advertised vacancies, as that has risen, but it also demonstrates the major problem for the unemployed. The figure of advertised vacancies is not particularly low it''s simply that for each vacancy there is more competition for a job. Simply put, whilst there may be a number of marketing jobs, for example, out there, at the moment there could be ten times as many people applying for each one than before.

There is no easy fix to the problem of unemployment, and no key for getting back into work quickly. Taking part-time work can help ends meet and demonstrate to potential employers that you are keen to work, but the only other solution is to keep searching. Keep an eye on everything from the Guardian jobs section to the Job Centre, and from small ads to search engines, and keep applying, there really is no other way of getting back into work, however disheartening it might be to deal with such stiff competition.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

This article was written by Mercy Rafla. If you are looking for jobs he recomends the Guardian Jobs website.

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