Unemployment shoots up
WORKERS, APR 2006 ISSUE
The latest unemployment figures show the sharpest rise in people out of work – however defined – since 1992. In February, an extra 14,400 people were added to the government's restrictive definition of unemployment, those receiving unemployment benefit. That took the total to 919,700. By the government's other measure, the Labour Force Survey, the figure shot up by 37,000 to 1.53 million, or 5% of the workforce. As ever, jobs in manufacturing continue to be destroyed at a rapid rate: 98,000 in the past year.
The government is quick to accept the Labour Force Survey. Yet the real number of those eligible for work but receiving benefits of some kind, even if not unemployment benefit, is 5.2 million – 14% of the workforce.
Blair is trying an old Tory trick but with less success. The Tories changed their method of calculation 32 times between 1979 and 1997, each time omitting certain groups from the statistics, such as young people under the age of 17, the over 55s and the long-term unemployed. Workers know that the real figures are much higher. There are workers who have looked for months and given up hope, only to be removed from the register.
One of the largest statistical fiddles is the use of incapacity benefit to mask unemployment. Many of the 2.72 million people receiving the benefit want to work, but they find barriers from employers, who can find cheaper "healthy" workers elsewhere.
Another big statistical lie can be found in Blair's pronouncement that there are now more people in employment. He does not know how many workers there are. He also wants to ignore those who have to take on extra part-time work just to make ends meet.
This government is hoping to cover up the fact that it has no idea how many economic migrants there are in Britain. But it does know that this import of cheap labour is driving down wages and undermining the ability of trade unions to defend workers' jobs and conditions.
The government's argument that we need migrant labour when in reality 1 in 7 workers are unemployed cannot be justified. And unemployment is costing the country £136 billion a year.
Blair's vision of a 21st century is too similar to a worker's nightmare from the 19th century – everywhere casualisation of labour, low wages, migration of labour, threats from unbridled capital and relentless attacks on the trade union movement.
We expect government sources to put a spin on data. But we need to be clearer. All statistics are lies from anyone in power in a capitalist government.