Unemployment falls in Putney: it'd be up under the Tories
The number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in Putney fell last month - not by much, but a local as well as national indication that this global recession is doing markedly less damage to jobs than the Conservative recessions of the 1980s and 1990s.
Those two Tory recessions were characterised by exactly the same indifference and lack of action as the Conservatives have said would have been their policy this time round too, had they had the chance.
Any of us would be crazy not to be at least a little concerned about the current levels of government borrowing but the spending has been for a clear purpose. First to shore up the banking system which was the source of this global disaster - because if banks had been allowed to go to the wall they'd have sucked down tens of thousands more businesses (employers) with them.
And second to make sure that anyone who does lose their job, or is struggling to find one, has a meaningful chance to get back into the employment market or at least to keep their skills and contacts competitive through training, internships and other opportunities.
Has it worked? Well I challenge any sceptic simply to explain how it is that during the Tory recessions - which in themselves were less severe than this one, unemployment skyrocketed and kept rising long after the UK had begun growing again.
Today, at the depth of the global recession, unemployment in Putney is BELOW what it was when Labour was first elected a decade ago - and that was in a period of significant economic growth. It is dramatically below what it was during the Tory recessions. And it's from a much lower base because of the huge effort - in contrast to the Tory years - Labour has invested in getting long-term, systemic unemployment levels right down. That's why we're starting from a much lower base than we did in the Tory recessions.
Who says politicians are the same? Under the Tories, we'd almost certainly have unemployment above 3 million by now - and rising rapidly. With Labour, Putney's working.
Those two Tory recessions were characterised by exactly the same indifference and lack of action as the Conservatives have said would have been their policy this time round too, had they had the chance.
Any of us would be crazy not to be at least a little concerned about the current levels of government borrowing but the spending has been for a clear purpose. First to shore up the banking system which was the source of this global disaster - because if banks had been allowed to go to the wall they'd have sucked down tens of thousands more businesses (employers) with them.
And second to make sure that anyone who does lose their job, or is struggling to find one, has a meaningful chance to get back into the employment market or at least to keep their skills and contacts competitive through training, internships and other opportunities.
Has it worked? Well I challenge any sceptic simply to explain how it is that during the Tory recessions - which in themselves were less severe than this one, unemployment skyrocketed and kept rising long after the UK had begun growing again.
Today, at the depth of the global recession, unemployment in Putney is BELOW what it was when Labour was first elected a decade ago - and that was in a period of significant economic growth. It is dramatically below what it was during the Tory recessions. And it's from a much lower base because of the huge effort - in contrast to the Tory years - Labour has invested in getting long-term, systemic unemployment levels right down. That's why we're starting from a much lower base than we did in the Tory recessions.
Who says politicians are the same? Under the Tories, we'd almost certainly have unemployment above 3 million by now - and rising rapidly. With Labour, Putney's working.
Labels: economy, employment
posted by Stuart King at
12:12
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