THE petty 5,000 fall in the number of the unemployed (that is the number of workless who are calculated to be looking for work) to 2.51 million is accounted for by the fact that currently there are now over one million pensioners working, and that the number of married women who have been forced to return to work has also increased. In fact, the unemployment percentage remains the same at 7.8%.
The number of employed people over 65 has reached more than a million, the highest since records began in 1971. Almost one in ten of the over-65s are in work, comprising 615,000 men and 388,000 women.
The other side of this coin is that the number of public sector workers who are jobless has risen. Public sector employment fell by 22,000 to just under 5.7 million, the lowest figure since 2001.
Long-term unemployment has also increased, with those out of work and seeking a job rising by 11,000 in April to almost 900,000.
The unemployment rate for February to April 2013 remains 7.8% of the economically active population, unchanged from November 2012 to January 2013.
There are 8.99 million economically inactive people, who are no longer counted as unemployed, aged from 16 to 64. This is up 40,000 from November 2012 to January 2013.
The British economy remains in slump, with youth condemned to mass unemployment, plus almost nine million people no longer even counted as unemployed.
What is even more striking than the fact that almost 12 million people of working age can no longer work in the UK is the ruthless way that the bosses have used the banking collapse, and the slump, to slash wages in the most drastic way.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that on top of the rising cost of living, one third of workers who stayed in the same job saw an open wage cut or freeze between 2010 and 2011.
The IFS said: ‘The falls in nominal wages … during this recession are unprecedented.’ The fantastic slashing of purchasing power, by wage cutting and rising prices, explains why since 2008 the UK has seen its longest and deepest loss of output in a century.
Many UK companies have slashed wages as well as making workers redundant, and have also taken advantage of the fact that trade unions have refused to demand wage rises that match the inflation rate, and have accepted wage cuts. The West and South-West England have seen the sharpest cuts – 10.6% and 10.1% respectively.
Commenting on the latest labour market statistics, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘Today’s figures show that economic green shoots are confined to the stock market and top bosses’ pay … Decent pay rises seem confined to top bosses, whose pay is now rising ten times faster than ordinary workers.’
Earlier this week, the TUC launched its new pay campaign – Britain Needs A Pay Rise – with new research showing that the UK’s total annual pay packet had shrunk by £52bn last year, compared to before the recession, as a result of reduced hours, real wage cuts and changes in the type of jobs people are doing.
However, as the TUC knows full well, pay rises don’t fall from heaven, they have to be fought for, and this is what the TUC-led trade unions have refused to do, preferring to capitulate to the wage-cutters.
Britain is now in the grip of a slump, with workers working for wages that they cannot live on, with millions of youth condemned to no job and no future, with pensioners being forced back to work, and with a ruling class war declared on benefits.
The TUC has stood by and watched a situation develop where workers’ total pay packet in the UK fell by 7.5 per cent over the last five years – a real terms annual cut of £52bn in 2012!
There is only one way forward for UK workers. This is to get rid of the TUC leaders, and bring forward a leadership that will call a general strike to bring down the coalition, and bring in a workers government and socialism. This is what must be done.
