We desperately need more in-depth analysis of the jobs market (Letters, 12 September), rather than just the net numbers issued by the government, especially as the definition of “job” became so loose under Iain Duncan Smith that even an hour a week for 18 weeks is now a “full-time job”, eligible for a large payout for so-called back-to-work providers. Most of us would call that a short-lived hobby, not a permanent job. Rules are stretched to maintain income for some of the Conservatives’ pet companies after they were embarrassed into deploying a payment-by-results regime when it was found that claimants were more likely to find a job if they avoided signing on with them.
Government data also seems to include a large number of people engaged in unpaid work experience and other dead-end schemes. People should really be classed as unemployed until actually receiving a job offer – far too many are finishing work placements and being replaced by further free labour rather than being offered a job. The oft-repeated “greatest number of people in work since records began” trope needs to be derided as this has been the case every year since records began, excepting 2011 and 2012 when Osborne’s choke took effect.
Gareth Evans
Par, Cornwall
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