Recession? What Recession?

I was watching some rather depressing TV the other night on the BBC ‘The Town That Never Retired’ with Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford from ‘The Apprentice’ and it occurred to me that, employment wise, we’re not actually in a recession at all.

Bear with me; the number of unemployed is about two-and-a-half million and the number of non-UK nationals with jobs in the UK is about…

…two-and-a-half million! 😉

So, employment wise, we have 100% employment…..so no recession there!

What would the effect of 100% employment be on the benefits bill I wonder; it will not be zero because of tax-credits and so-on but it must be considerably lower? And more employment must surely mean more spending? And what about the benefits to health (mental and physical) of those now working? And what about a reduction in crime figures through full employment and other social benefits?

I understand that there are massive problems with the skill-shortage of the unemployed (plus, dare I say it, those that don’t want to work) but surely a skills-shortage should be easier to address than an employment-shortage, shouldn’t it?

The depressing part of the programme (available in the UK on BBC iPlayer) was that the unemployed ‘youngsters’ that were paired with the retired workers seemed to have (and I know it is TV) absolutely no work-ethic whatsoever; three out of four of them didn’t bother to turn-up for their second day on the job, one, after being forty minutes late on the first day even disappeared (to his bed) at lunchtime! Furthermore not one of the missing ‘workers’ had the basic manners to phone-in to say that they wouldn’t be there…

…and these are, apparently, people who have been desperate for work for years! :rolleyes: