THE UK’s job market, which the Tories and their supporters have long held to be evidence of the ability of British capitalism to ‘bounce back’ out of recession, is starting to turn bad according to the experts.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in the three months to July, marking the lowest since 1974, but at the same time, the employment rate and the number of job vacancies also fell.
John Reed, head of the recruitment agency, told the BBC: ‘The jobs boom that that began six months after the pandemic is probably coming to an end now.’
Far from being a sign of strength in the economy, the fall in the unemployment rate has a much more serious reason – the relentless pressure on the NHS.
James Smith, a developed markets economist at ING, said that although the latest headline job numbers ‘don’t look too bad’ with unemployment falling to its lowest level since 1974,‘this is driven not by an increase in the number of people in employment, but primarily by another dramatic rise in those classified as inactive’ and that ‘alarmingly, the number of people classifying as not working due to long-term sickness is up by almost 400,000 since late 2019.’ He added: ‘It’s hard to escape the conclusion that this is linked to pressure on the NHS.’
The main cause of the fall in unemployment is the relentless pressure on the NHS leading to more long-term sickness with more and more people unable to work due to massive waiting lists along with the thousands suffering from the effects of long-term Covid.
Now the unemployment rate is set to shoot up, as even the Bank of England has been forced to acknowledge, as the country plunges into recession.
Yesterday, economic news site Bloomberg revealed that the Tories were warned last year that energy price inflation threatened to close down entire industries including chemical and fertiliser manufacturers.
This report, Project Shine, was commissioned by the Treasury over fears of rising energy prices caused by the pandemic – long before the imperialist war and sanctions on Russia drove energy prices into the stratosphere.
British capitalism was going over the edge into recession in 2021, and it is today heading in even deeper, with the working class facing mass unemployment and wages that are far below even the official rate of inflation.
Official figures released yesterday revealed that pay growth failed to keep pace with rising prices in July with regular pay (excluding bonuses) increasing by 5.2%, while the official annual inflation rate stood at 10.1% – the highest level in 40 years.
This official rate doesn’t even begin to cover the increase in essentials.
The average UK food bill has increased by £571 a year with supermarket inflation reaching a record high of 12.4%.
Mass unemployment, tens of millions of workers and their families driven into fuel poverty unable to afford enough to eat – that is the only future that capitalism holds for the working class.
The working class, the most powerful force in capitalist society, has demonstrated conclusively that it will not accept this as its fate.
In the face of the anger and determination of workers and youth to fight the savage attacks on wages and basic rights, the leadership of the trade unions and TUC have done their utmost to avoid a confrontation with the Tories and the capitalist state.
Strikes have been suspended and the annual TUC conference postponed – put off to some unspecified time in the future in an attempt to suppress the rising tide of anger and the increasing demand for a general strike.
The showdown with bankrupt capitalism cannot be postponed. Workers in trade unions must insist that the TUC is immediately recalled and that it must immediately call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government.
A workers’ government will nationalise the major industries and banks placing them under the management of, and for the benefit of, the working class, by building a planned socialist economy.
Socialist revolution is the only answer to the historic crisis of capitalism and only the WRP and its youth section, the Young Socialists, are fighting for this revolutionary perspective – join today, there is no time to lose.THE UK’s job market, which the Tories and their supporters have long held to be evidence of the ability of British capitalism to ‘bounce back’ out of recession, is starting to turn bad according to the experts.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in the three months to July, marking the lowest since 1974, but at the same time, the employment rate and the number of job vacancies also fell.
John Reed, head of the recruitment agency, told the BBC: ‘The jobs boom that that began six months after the pandemic is probably coming to an end now.’
Far from being a sign of strength in the economy, the fall in the unemployment rate has a much more serious reason – the relentless pressure on the NHS.
James Smith, a developed markets economist at ING, said that although the latest headline job numbers ‘don’t look too bad’ with unemployment falling to its lowest level since 1974,‘this is driven not by an increase in the number of people in employment, but primarily by another dramatic rise in those classified as inactive’ and that ‘alarmingly, the number of people classifying as not working due to long-term sickness is up by almost 400,000 since late 2019.’ He added: ‘It’s hard to escape the conclusion that this is linked to pressure on the NHS.’
The main cause of the fall in unemployment is the relentless pressure on the NHS leading to more long-term sickness with more and more people unable to work due to massive waiting lists along with the thousands suffering from the effects of long-term Covid.
Now the unemployment rate is set to shoot up, as even the Bank of England has been forced to acknowledge, as the country plunges into recession.
Yesterday, economic news site Bloomberg revealed that the Tories were warned last year that energy price inflation threatened to close down entire industries including chemical and fertiliser manufacturers.
This report, Project Shine, was commissioned by the Treasury over fears of rising energy prices caused by the pandemic – long before the imperialist war and sanctions on Russia drove energy prices into the stratosphere.
British capitalism was going over the edge into recession in 2021, and it is today heading in even deeper, with the working class facing mass unemployment and wages that are far below even the official rate of inflation.
Official figures released yesterday revealed that pay growth failed to keep pace with rising prices in July with regular pay (excluding bonuses) increasing by 5.2%, while the official annual inflation rate stood at 10.1% – the highest level in 40 years.
This official rate doesn’t even begin to cover the increase in essentials.
The average UK food bill has increased by £571 a year with supermarket inflation reaching a record high of 12.4%.
Mass unemployment, tens of millions of workers and their families driven into fuel poverty unable to afford enough to eat – that is the only future that capitalism holds for the working class.
The working class, the most powerful force in capitalist society, has demonstrated conclusively that it will not accept this as its fate.
In the face of the anger and determination of workers and youth to fight the savage attacks on wages and basic rights, the leadership of the trade unions and TUC have done their utmost to avoid a confrontation with the Tories and the capitalist state.
Strikes have been suspended and the annual TUC conference postponed – put off to some unspecified time in the future in an attempt to suppress the rising tide of anger and the increasing demand for a general strike.
The showdown with bankrupt capitalism cannot be postponed. Workers in trade unions must insist that the TUC is immediately recalled and that it must immediately call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government.
A workers’ government will nationalise the major industries and banks placing them under the management of, and for the benefit of, the working class, by building a planned socialist economy.
Socialist revolution is the only answer to the historic crisis of capitalism and only the WRP and its youth section, the Young Socialists, are fighting for this revolutionary perspective – join today, there is no time to lose.
