CBI: Let's get the UK working
Jun 13 2011
The CBI says that getting the UK working is going to require 'fresh thinking' and 'innovative solutions'
The UK must move to tackle the ‘structural causes of unemployment’, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says.
The lobbying group has unveiled detailed analysis of the UK labour market, revealing deep-seated problems which, according to the organisation, will not be solved by a return to economic growth alone.
CBI Director-General John Cridland says, ‘The government has rightly focused on tackling the structural deficit in the public finances, but needs to apply the same rigour to attacking the structural jobs deficit.
‘We must ensure the fruits of recovery are felt in every region. We need to get the UK working and that is going to require fresh thinking and innovative solutions.’
The CBI report, entitled ‘Mapping the route to growth: rebalancing employment’, marks the start of a major new project for the CBI which will explore what is needed to get the UK working.
By mapping the state of the labour market region-by-region, the CBI’s analysis reveals that the decade of growth before the recession masked entrenched problems, including pockets of long-term unemployment and inactivity, high public sector dependency and serious skills shortages.
The report sets out the complexity of the unemployment problem, which is linked to many factors including skills, local economic performance, welfare dependency, educational achievement and infrastructure.
There are currently 2.46 million unemployed people in the UK. The CBI expects this to continue rising through 2011, peaking around 2.6 million, before edging lower during 2012. However, the cyclical rise and fall in employment has hidden a deep-rooted problem of long-term unemployment and economic inactivity.
Projections of future employment trends suggest these labour market divisions will deepen as the recovery continues, with highly-skilled jobs expected to be most in demand in London and the South East, compared with the North East and West Midlands.
Comment by David Gleadhill
Thursday 16th June 2011Yes a million times over to these comments. My only observation is that the figure of 2.46 million unemployed is nonsense. It is only the published figure. We all know that this figure is much higher as so many middle class white collar workers do not sign on at the Job Centre, partly out of pride and because they are not entitled to state benefits.
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