Where things ever actually much different?

Legacy_user

Today the recession is blamed on a lot of things, lack of jobs is one of them, but I am curious where things actually much different in the past?

I entered the work place in 1997 and to be honest there is as much choice out there now as there was then and thats little to none, I appreciate this may be down to my area which is a fairly rural and it may of been different in cities, but I was always brought up to believe by my father "Your lucky to get a job let alone one you like" so it must of been fairly normal to give him that attitude.

I never went to uni, infact 90% of my year at high school didnt stay on, but for those who did I look at them now on bebo/facebook, the ones who have got anywhere are in England while the rest are in average jobs over here.

The main change I see since back then is it seemed to be fairly common that the crappier the job the better the pay as employers used this to get someone to actually do the job, with the influx of migrants these jobs are now min wage.

CB1985

Thre are plenty of jobs out there, with the recession hitting alot of companies have had to lay staff off and thus job losses, and of course other companies have flourished in the recession and have vacancies.

in my town the latest report (heard it on the radio today) confirmed the unmployed is at its highest recorded number at just under 250k,

So yes, there are the same amount of jobs roughly maybe a bit less than in past years, however theres now 10-30 times more people applying for the positions.

this is my understanding of it atm from my experience in my town and local areas

ceridwen

Not quite sure when things started "drifting".

My first job was a walkover to get - early 1970s - easy-peasy. The conditions in the job were "easy street" too. Certainly for the first few years I was working there was NO problem. Jobs were easy to get/easy to do/not a problem at all.

I suspect my age group (ie "a certain age") arent very popular with employers these days - as we remember how things used to be.

We also remember when benefit was a lot higher and a lot easier to get than it is now - if by any chance we became unemployed. But people like myself never thought for one second WE would ever become unemployed - because it just didnt happen to us - EVER.

I think possibly things started worsening round about 1980 or so as far as I can see. They have certainly been going steadily downhill ever since - and these days are positively "hurtling" downhill.

I've been absolutely gobsmacked over recent months watching the number of employers who are currently imposing paycuts on employees (a few of them even being cheeky enough to expect staff to work for the same number of hours for lower money - what:eek:). In many different ways I have been astonished to watch the way many employers have been/are acting in recent years:eek:.

To me - the way things look right now is that some employers seem to have made the decision to cut down the time some employees work - and the Government is darn well giving them a "nod and a wink" to do exactly that:eek:. Actually my own take on this is that there are many fewer unskilled and low-skilled jobs available than there were (partly through technology/partly because some of our jobs have been sent overseas) on the one hand BUT many more people needing these jobs on the other hand (because the darn population is STILL increasing for goodness sake!!!!). Hence - it seems to me that the Government has taken some sort of decision somewhere sometime to "ration" jobs out - ie to encourage employers to break many of their full-time jobs down into 2 part-time ones for instance and make people do some involuntary "jobsharing". All well and good if one only wants half a job - but for those who still need full-time jobs and can only ask for the unskilled/lower-skilled jobs - it is VERY bad news.

It suits the Government to make people do involuntary "jobsharing" - less chance of them landing up on the Dole. It suits more unscrupulous employers to go along with this - as they prefer part-time staff to full-time ones anyway.

Result = a distinct problem for full-time unskilled/low-skilled workers.

System

So it seems unless your 40 or more you wont remember any difference. I still think things are different in the cities though, for example a call centre job would be classed as rather crap, out here in the sticks where there is damn all only factories i would class it as a dream job.

Golden_Anemone

nirelandguy wrote: »

So it seems unless your 40 or more you wont remember any difference. I still think things are different in the cities though, for example a call centre job would be classed as rather crap, out here in the sticks where there is damn all only factories i would class it as a dream job.

nirelandguy - I too live in rural NI but I commute to a city to work. I don't mean to sound unkind but I think attitude is everything. Those who want to change their lot AND are prepared to do what it takes in terms of mobility, boosting their education etc. will do ok. Those who want everything changed FOR them and who do nothing but moan...

You seem to have a new "poor me" thread every few weeks. You do have choices if you are prepared to make them.

donnajunkie

my impression is things have been gradually getting worse over the last 30 years or so. if i remember correctly in the 1979 general election the tories had a poster saying britains not working which also stated 1 million people were unemployed. these days if the unemployment figure was 1 million we would be considered to be in a boom time.

Widelats

I remember when i could walk into a job easy but it would only be factory work, now i applied last week to work on the roads, just physical labour work, and there were 990 people going for that 1 job, i asked why keep on advertising it then and got told by the recruiter that it was the firms policy to keep the recruiter there so that the firm looks like it is doing good for the local community, in another job i applied for on the tyne tunnel there have been tens of thousands of applicants and only around 70 jobs, yet the recruiter always goes to the same building in the library every thursday to put peoples names down so it looks good in the community, the firm comes from London so they are like "Yes we are from London but we do employ local people too" but the reality is they do not employ many at all, and the chances of getting employment on the tyne tunnel are 1 in 3,000, they have too many workers as it is.

I can't see things getting better here in the UK, unless you are a computer person, seems to be lots of cleaning jobs round, but honestly i want a mans wage and a mans job, there is nothing there though.

poppy_f1

have you ever considered going to college at night or doing a open uni course if things are that bad and you want out of your current job

System

poppy_f1 wrote: »

have you ever considered going to college at night or doing a open uni course if things are that bad and you want out of your current job

Have already done the open uni course:)

There is !!!!!! all out here regardless of qualifications, It seems to be the actual standard of jobs has got worse, and there now isn't the money as an incentive to do the crappy work.

I can't see things getting better here in the UK, unless you are a computer person, seems to be lots of cleaning jobs round, but honestly i want a mans wage and a mans job, there is nothing there though.

The problem with computer work these days is there are so many people out there now, back 10-20 years ago you would have been worth your weight, these days the only computer work I do for people is upgrade/repair friends/familys computers usually for free.

nirelandguy - I too live in rural NI but I commute to a city to work. I don't mean to sound unkind but I think attitude is everything. Those who want to change their lot AND are prepared to do what it takes in terms of mobility, boosting their education etc. will do ok. Those who want everything changed FOR them and who do nothing but moan...

You seem to have a new "poor me" thread every few weeks. You do have choices if you are prepared to make them.

This wasnt supposed to be a moan about me, I was speaking in general terms, and judging by the responces it seems I am not alone.

olly300

poppy_f1 wrote: »

have you ever considered going to college at night or doing a open uni course if things are that bad and you want out of your current job

He's started OU courses and dropped out as he decided they were too hard.

Also one thing that is different from days gone by is that all my family and friends who are well off either work long hours, far away from our homes or both. Nearly everyone of us has some form of higher or professional education, and some of these were taken while working and looking after young children.

Unfortunately today if you are low skilled you have difficulty getting a job, and even if you are skilled to keep employed you have to continually learn more things regardless of whether you belong to a professional body that requires this.

System

olly300 wrote: »

He's started OU courses and dropped out as he decided they were too hard.

Also one thing that is different from days gone by is that all my family and friends who are well off either work long hours, far away from our homes or both. Nearly everyone of us has some form of higher or professional education, and some of these were taken while working and looking after young children.

Unfortunately today if you are low skilled you have difficulty getting a job, and even if you are skilled to keep employed you have to continually learn more things regardless of whether you belong to a professional body that requires this.

No I got a certificate, I dropped out as it had no relivance to what I wanted to do.