OBVIOUSLY it has something to do with the much reported boom in the economy but our expectations are definitely changing especially in relation to the lifestyle we lead. Some might argue that this is nowhere more evident than in our attitude to work.
Many people, it has been said, seem unwilling to work for a wage of less than £160 a week. Most no longer yearn for the "pensionable and permanent". We hear voiced a desire for reduced working hours and learn that there is an increased propensity to retire before the statutory retirement age. There is a move to encourage greater integration between work, family and leisure time. Indeed, the results of a survey released last June showed that more than a quarter of the men interviewed stated a preference for looking after the home rather than going out to work, and many women are opting for careers which can give them job share opportunities.
It would appear, therefore, that quality time has arrived as an issue worthy of some consideration. That is, if you happen to be one of the 1,234,000 people employed in this country, and in a position to choose.
But what if you're not? Unemployment, especially of a long term nature, is becoming a structural part of the way our society operates. The most recent Labour Force Survey statistics showed that there were 190,000 people without jobs last April, and projected a drop of only 15,000 to leave a remaining total of 175,000 still unemployed next April.
The Government, to give it its due, declared that it would address unemployment as a priority during this country's Presidency of the EU. Indeed, it introduced a job initiative programme last July to target one of the most marginalised groups among the long term unemployed middle aged, poorly qualified people who had not worked for many years. But a pilot programme limited to 1,000 places gives little practical comfort to those who have faces and families to feed.
But who are those faces? What do we know about those people whom circumstance has chosen to bury beneath the anonymity of an economic description "the unemployed"? Do we relate them to GNP or GDP, or do we view them as products of their own inadequacies? Do we ever take time out to consider how they must feel, as individuals, about their situation and about themselves? Do we empathise with their many emotions or, in vie#ing them as units of statistical data, do we simply not credit them with emotion at all? IN primitive hunting and gathering societies, work constitutes both mental activity and physical labour. Thus it is made impossible to draw any clear distinction between work and non work. And because work is inextricably bound up with life, it is unusual for people to be deprived of the opportunity to work. At times, of course, there may be little to do and people may be "under employed" but they will never be "unemployed" in the sense that they are excluded from the work force.
In more developed societies however, children learn from a very early age that one of the prime sources of identity and status is occupation. The word "work" carries connotations far beyond meaning and role. Unemployment is, therefore, regarded as being not only unwelcome but also unacceptable after all, occupational advancement is synonymous with social advancement. In such a climate, it is not surprising that many unemployed people will perceive others as viewing them as "lazy", "living off the backs of the taxpayer" or just "bone idle", Who among them can forget Thomas Hobbes's chilling observation that the value of worth of a man is but a thing dependent on the judgment of another? Which one of them will live down the recent report by the Central Statistics Office on social welfare fraud, as long as we tar them all with the same brush? Social welfare fraud may well be draining an estimated £500 million from the public finances each year but as was pointed out in a recent newspaper report, many social welfare recipients will never handle one of the new £100 notes, unless it comes as part of a social welfare payment. Most do not dabble in the black economy, but almost all do live in the black hole of poverty.
And so it goes. Even though an unemployed person may view his or her predicament within the same framework as thousands of others, the tendency for each one will be to perceive his or her own situation as a particular reflection on him or her the tendency for us is that we judge each one on his or her ability to find and keep a job.
Ours is a democratic society. Ours is a developed country. The sad truth of the matter for us, though, is that many older people who are living here and unemployed may never work again. It is also possible that many of our young people, who have just left school, may never work at all. The unfortunate reality for many unemployed people is that while their elected representatives will pursue policies designed to re-establish them in work, they will effectively decide that it is not necessary to develop and pursue policies designed to help them adjust to, and cope with, a state of sustained worklessness. In religious terms, that could be considered a sin of omission in economic terms, it could be considered another type of fraud.
Thus is employment policy a double edged sword which poses serious challenges to our political leaders. By all means strengthen the economy and improve the competitiveness of companies, in order to generate growth and an improved standard of living for workers, but ensure, at the same time, that there is an adequate safety net for the vulnerable, for those not at work.
We are told that the biggest push so far to tackle unemployment within the EU will be a mammoth conference to be held in Brussels in November. It will be attended by more than 1,000 delegates from 32 countries, all talking about job creation. However one senior EU official cautions "We cannot provide a solution but it is important that we keep applying pressure on those who draft the policies and make the decisions." But one would have to ask important for whom? Those who are hoping for a better working life? Or those who are just hoping for work?
