Is UK Unemployment Enraging You?

GoodNewmover

dpassmore wrote: »

A valid argument, but I would suggest that there are many who have indeed taken such advice with disastrous consequences. Sure, you can quote successful entrepreneurs ad nauseum but for every success there are many failures and have lost everything by attempting to start their own business.

The reality is that many people, despite being academicaly gifted, just do not have the acumen to run a business.

There are alot of people who have very little or no experience in business but have had no choice but to become self-employed because of economic climates like this one. If people have no interest in looking at other ways of earning money then it is a choice they have made.

dpassmore wrote: »

Another hurdle would be funding, as banks are now very selective who they will lend money to and it would be unlikely that someone who has been unemployed for some time with little or no capital would be offered funding to start their own business - and many who would like to work for themselves, may just not be prepared to take the risk. (Yes - I know, starting up on your own is a risk and I know there will be stories of how someone started their own enterprise with the last ten bob to their name)

Funding. It is easy to blame the government or the banks for not willing to lend. Good point you made setting up a business is a risk and it's sometimes best not to take out loans. However some people want to run before they can walk. A lady wants to run a shop but has little funds; she could sell her products from home, and when she makes enough money she can set up her dream shop. I don't think we should write off the idea of self-employment where there's a will there's always a way to be honest. The point I was trying to make was that people need to look at the alternatives and in this climate I don't think many people have much of a choice.

jimbms

Tell you the truth I hadn't noticed, unemployment is only about 1.2% here and never really thought about it yesterday as it was a bank holiday.

dickydonkin

GoodNewmover wrote: »

There are alot of people who have very little or no experience in business but have had no choice but to become self-employed because of economic climates like this one. If people have no interest in looking at other ways of earning money then it is a choice they have made.



Funding. It is easy to blame the government or the banks for not willing to lend. Good point you made setting up a business is a risk and it's sometimes best not to take out loans. However some people want to run before they can walk. A lady wants to run a shop but has little funds; she could sell her products from home, and when she makes enough money she can set up her dream shop. I don't think we should write off the idea of self-employment where there's a will there's always a way to be honest. The point I was trying to make was that people need to look at the alternatives and in this climate I don't think many people have much of a choice.

Absolutely - but I think it is important that people who embark on their own venture are not compromising their assests and I think you will have to concede that someone embarking on a new venture (who may need financing to set up a business) will find funding from the financial institutions more difficult to obtain than say 5 years ago.

Yes it can be a risk, but by walking before running as you suggested is the right way to go.

I think that many (including myself) seem quite happy in the comfort zone of a regular wage as an employee and for some, I suspect a kick up the backside such as redundancy has been the best thing that has happened to them by forcing them to look for alternative ways of earning a living.

lewt

dave4545454 wrote: »

i've worked for 18 years and made a difference to a lot of people's lives

Have you also claimed benefit for 18 years too ?

wigglebeena

dpassmore wrote: »

Absolutely - but I think it is important that people who embark on their own venture are not compromising their assests and I think you will have to concede that someone embarking on a new venture (who may need financing to set up a business) will find funding from the financial institutions more difficult to obtain than say 5 years ago.

Yes it can be a risk, but by walking before running as you suggested is the right way to go.

I think that many (including myself) seem quite happy in the comfort zone of a regular wage as an employee and for some, I suspect a kick up the backside such as redundancy has been the best thing that has happened to them by forcing them to look for alternative ways of earning a living.

Totally. There are lots of ways now to test the water rather than plunging in and risking every penny you've got (and some you haven't). Although judging by conversations with mates, some find this suggestion unpalatably unglamorous and want humungous capital to fund a multi-national company. (When they've never even registered self-employed previously).

snowqueen555

Whats your background info, i.e. what are you doing atm the moment and what could you do? You need to change something. I found agencies were terrible, i signed up to 3 and only ever got one interview from them, but I missed it because they gave me the wrong address!

Last year I was unemployed for 6 months (I volunteered for 3 months p/t). I sent out about 80 applications a week (mostly by email, and for ANY job, even if I probably wouldn't do it. just keep sending them out) and got at least one interview a week. I failed a lot of interviews (for stuff like retail and office work), then I got two at the same time. The one I am in right now is pretty terrible and depressing me, but I need to just do it for the foreseable future.

Volunteering helped me out in a few ways. For one thing a worker there basically offered me a job from a friend of her's but it didn't work out. It also gave me something to talk about during interviews.

Hammyman

dpassmore wrote: »

Which is fine - providing you had a Capri to sell or other means of funding. Some people will argue that the world is a different beast since the Capri was on the road.

I sold my Capri last year and only finished the first trading year of my current business three weeks ago.

redpin_2

lewt wrote: »

Have you also claimed benefit for 18 years too ?

doubt it, if "MSE saver - June 2010 £201,000" is true :P 4% of 200,000 = 600 per month

f1re_cr4cker

this thread is intriguing i want to know what jobs the OP is going for and if dave has been claiming benefit for 18 years or not- answer please!

patman99

I know how the OP feels, in my case, I'm severely limited by the T&Cs in my PPI. For instance, I can not take any fixed-term contract possitions (I've seen at least 10 that I would have definately applied for), neither can I take a temporary job which lasts in excess of 6 months. Now that is really annoying. My last job started as a 3 month temp position, and after 2 years on a rolling temp contract I was made a permanent employee. In total, I was there 16 years v4 months and 9 days.
If I'd had the same restriction on the PPI I had back then, I would have had to return to being unemployed long before I would have got the chance to gain a permanent contract.