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Employment

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
 Preamble

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
Under the Tories monetarist policies, employment was left to the vagaries of the market. In 2 recessions unemployment rose to much the highest levels seen since the war and, though the system for counting it was changed 30 times, it was still at a historically high level when they lost office. Employment levels were also high then, however, though many of the new jobs were temporary or part-time. Foreign companies brought jobs to Britain because wages, taxes and social costs were low and unions weak, but it was also cheap to sack labour.
Labour policy was:
1 A return to full employment using Keynesian principles to stimulate demand  
2 To rebuild Britain's manufacturing base  
3 To use internationally agreed (ILO) methods to measure unemployment  
4 To end the reliance on undercutting other countries in the labour market  
5 To use education and training to attract high quality jobs  
In fact under New Labour:
1 Numbers employed rose before the recession, but by continued reliance on the market, while proposals for EU job-creation programmes were vetoed Pledge partially carried out
2 More than a million more manufacturing jobs were lost after 1997 Left as under the Conservatives
3 The ILO system was not introduced though some changes were made Pledge partially carried out
4 Attempts, e.g. by the EU, to get a level playing field were resisted Left as under the Conservatives
5 The high quality job route remained government policy, but most new employment was low-paid and unskilled Pledge partially carried out
In addition:
Bullet point Even the doctored unemployment count remained at levels double those usual from 1940 to 1975  
Bullet point A pledge to axe 104,000 civil service jobs was presented as good news  
Bullet point New Labour was a proud advocate of the flexible labour market introduced by the Tories  

 

 Bullet point 

Unemployment rose steeply during the recession, but financial measures taken limited the rise

 

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