Unemployment Issues

1
Unemployment Issues

• Incidence
• Official definitions
• Who becomes unemployed
• How is unemployment experienced
• a) Gender
• b) Class
• 5. The unemployment career

2
UK Unemployment Post-Thatcher

• All Male Female E.C
• 1990 5.8 7 .5 3.5 8.4
• 1991 8.0 10.7 4.5 8.7
• 1992 9.8 13.2 5.3 9.5
• 1993 10.4 14.0 5.6 10.7
• 1994 9.6 12.7 5.1 11.1
• 1995 8.7 11.2 4.5 10.7
• 1996 8.2 10.3 4.1 10.9
• 1997 5.4 7.3 3.0 10. 6

3
Unemployment Race

• Handout

4
Official Unemployment Statistics

• International Labour Organisation definition
• percentage of unemployed persons in the
  economically active population who are without
  work during the survey period and are available
  for work and actively seeking work
• UK Definitions
• 1993 Unemployed job-seekers
• 1997 Unemployed actively seeking work

5
Unemployment 2003

• EU Average
• Unemployed 9.1 (range 2.0 ? 31.8)
• female 10.0
• UK
• Unemployed 5.0 (range N. Yorks 2.7? Inner
  London 8.8)
• female 4.3.

6
Employment Unemployment

• UK Average (November 2004)
• unemployed 4.6 (1.38m).
• working-age group in employment 74.7

7
Local Labour Market

• Aberdeen City (mid-year 2004)
• unemployed 3.6. (N.B 7.6 are economically
  active and wanting a job (i.e. change the
  definition and the statistics change)
• males 3.8 females 3.5.
• working age group in employment 79.7
• Sources Eurostat National Statistics Online
  NOMIS

8
Political Context

• Being out of work ? being unemployed
• Changing history of the politics of
  unemployment
• Labour market de-regulation.
• Social construction of unemployment. official
  statistics
• Unemployment and stigmatisation

9
Labour Market Unemployment

• Being out of unemployed ? being work
• Availability of informal work the grey
  economy
• Grey economy reproduces the distribution of
  advantages of the formal economy

10
Vulnerability to Unemployment

• self-exclusion from official statistics
• secondary sector employees,
• migrants and members of ethnic minorities,
• non-unionised workers,
• the long-term unemployed and sick
• hireable fireable undesirable?

11
Social Structure Experience of Unemployment

• Class middle class deviance
• working class solidarity
• Gender female vulnerability
• male self-identity

12
The Unemployed Career

• Stages of unemployment and emotion
• The self-fulfilling prophecy and long term
  employment