Unemployment heads back to record level
Thursday 23rd September 2010, 3:00PM BST.
Union leader Nick Corbel.
UNEMPLOYMENT in Jersey is soaring towards the record levels seen during the depths of the recession, new figures have revealed.
The number of people out of work has increased for the fourth consecutive month, with 1,290 Islanders now registered as unemployed.
The alarming rise has pushed levels close to the record 1,320 people registered out of work in February.
Nick Corbel, spokesman for the Unite union, said that the cuts being made by the States would only make matters worse. ‘These figures are alarming,’ he said. ‘I am seriously concerned about the levels of unemployment, and the proposals to make more cuts in the public sector will only increase these figures.’
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this is without ones not registered but are with recruitment agencies instead.
So what is the true figure & no spin!!!
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What does anyone expect we are in the middle of a recession, Jersey is an expensive and over regulated Jurisdiction and as a result financial services businesses are laying off staff in turn who are not spending or paying tax….that how it works and why the states also have to make cuts.
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A lot of unemployed are students and seasonal workers though and I don’t agree with Nick Corbel because keeping people in work for the sake of it when they are surplus to requirements is bad business and bad for the tax payer. Keeping jobs for jobs sake is a recipe for disaster for goodness sake.
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I am not sure this is a little bit of sensationalisation; 21st August the report said 1,250 people out of work, only 40 people less, or 0.07% of the working age population. So in total unemployment is at 2%! Way less than the national average.
Lets really put this in perspective, during these four months there has been approximately 309 births and around 240 deaths!
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1. Too many people and not enough jobs.
2. Or too many lazy people who can’t be bothered to do the jobs out their.
what do people think?
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what do they expect when they let every Tom,Dick,and Harry in?
Why don,t they shut the gate and not allow any more in?
Locals have little or no choice of getting work while immigrants are undercutting,that bosses choose them to line their own pockets,same as in UK.
Until this is sorted,nothing will change,unemployment will continue to grow,locals will (and are)leaving by their droves.
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Nick the horse has bolted. Your continued wage demands have innecessarily put pressure on the economy. Pull your belt in, suggest wage cuts and wage restraint, and maybe you might be able to save some people their jobs!
But no you won’t because that means less subscriptions.
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Quote: Nick Corbel, ‘These figures are alarming,’ he said. ‘I am seriously concerned about the levels of unemployment, and the proposals to make more cuts in the public sector will only increase these figures.’
Answer: If Mr Corbel and his union members didn’t squeeze every penny, perk, allowance and did everything to their own schedule of overtime and weekend work then the states would have more money than it currently does.
When the parasite has sucked its victim dry it moves on or dies.. unfortunately for the Union membership moving on is not an option…
Mr Corbel you’ve lined your nest now lie in it.
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There’s 170 jobs listed on this website alone.
The jobs are there. people just need to get off their arse and go and get interviewed!!!
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If this goes on I can see it hitting 1500 plus in the winter.
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“1290 Islanders now registered as unemployed”, please could we have a definition of what consitutes an “Islander”. Does this include persons who visited and stayed? Persons who came looking for work and now find that it has disappeared but don’t want to leave and are happy to take benefits? Those who are just work shy and enjoy life on benefits? Being unemployed is not a nice position to be in if you have a strong work ethic, I know as I have been there and I believe that if you receive a state benefit you should do something for the community in which you live in return.
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Introduce work permits for non uk residents, if you have no job to come to and no address then you don’t come in. Protect local jobs now and stop this mass immigration making locals pay for the corrupt banking system which caused this recession. Which by the way is a blessing to the Conucil of ministers as the can now quote the economic turn down for the problems they created with the induction of zero ten taxation.
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I was made redundant. Lost J cat. Kicked out of the island. No entry in any statistics. I know of others with the same fate. Therefore, the statistics is purr whitewash!
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Surely contributory factors are the social security, tax and housing laws that encourage people to breed instead of working.
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Mr Corbel, how about allowing your members to volenteer for a four day week ? Is this even on the table?
That’s what the private sector does when times are tough you know.
The paying public can’t continue to keep people in jobs for the sake of it. It’s as simple as that and we ALL need to do our bit.
In any event, not sure how reliable (either way) this figures are.
S.
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@11 Exiled St Ouennais
Could you please clarify these benefits that unemployed people are receiving? I can think of some people who are unemployed and are receiving nothing.
And struggling to boot.
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For my entire life most people I have spoken to have wanted the population of Jersey to stop growing. I think that will only happen if two conditions are satisfied: firstly, an end to building new places for people to live; and secondly, an end to lower paid jobs that suck in migrant labour. If there are jobs and accommodation (no matter how grotty) people will come.
If we lose 5,000 unskilled jobs (whether building labourers, fulfilment industry workers or road sweepers) and those people then leave the Island I for one would be delighted.
A sustainable, affordable Jersey is what we should want. Unemployment is part of the unpleasant medicine that will get us there.
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““1290 Islanders now registered as unemployed”, please could we have a definition of what consitutes an “Islander”.”
If I were you I would not would not worry about this. No one in the ruling group in the States is remotely concerned. How many people are in the island and what they are doing is just so much phooey to them. We could have had a census but they turned it down.
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Adding to No.4 – View the trend of the number of people in employment (far outweighs the growth of unemployed):
http://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/TD%20LabourMarketTotalEmployment%2020091007%20SU.xls
TLS’s watch is certainly not about population control.
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Wake up and smell the coffee. Do they pull these figures out of a hat?? I would estimate that the figure is at least double the 1290 if those who have paid their dues in the past, but now unemployed, are unable to register for benefits were included!
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11. I believe people are only eligible to pay benefits if they have worked and paid social security contributions over specific time scales. Once these contributions stop so does the right to claim benefits. At least I hope that is how things work – otherwise we are all in big trouble.
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remeber we used to have a tourist industry ahhh the good old days!
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I know of quite a lot of people who are not registered as unemployed, This is due to them having saved money or have quite well off parents, The figure is a lot higher, one job advertised in the paper for a friend of mine had over 500 replies, most of them didn’t have 5 year residency so couldn’t fill the post. Most of the unemployed have only been in the island a year or so. Jersey is still letting more and more people come in, This is wrong, why should we pay taxes to people when there are jobs available in Europe. personally i think there must be a cap on non essential imigration, like the UK is going to try to do, It does work, as seen in Canada, New zeland and Australia. They have very little unemployment.
If i went to work in france and there was no jobs, i would not hang around waiting 6 months to a year at the tax payers expense to see if something turned up, i would go else where.
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Nice try Colin (19) posting a link to statistics claiming to prove your point that the growth in employment “far outweighs the growth of unemployed”.
The problem is that someone with much more experience than you of using official statistics for political purposes clicks on your link and then comes up with this to rubbish your claim:
Total number in employment Dec 2001 = 50,090
Total number in employment Dec 2009 = 53,700
A rise of about 7.3% during the period
Total number registered unemployed as at 31st December 2001 = 193
Total number registered unemployed as at 31st December 2009 = 1107
A rise of about 474% during the period
Argument over!
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Benefits continue to be paid number 21.
Good point Number 11 – If we look to other jurisdictions as to ones which we can learn from (in terms of what to, and what not to do). Take Australia for example, they have a work-for-the-dole program. If you want the dole, you work in community programs. There are other options, such as undertake approved training (for example, finance related).
It is just paid willy nilly.
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The welfare state that we currently live in does not encourage work. I know someone who gets more income through benefits than I do working full time and not only that I get a tax bill to pay on top. Who are the fouls!
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#17
What an idiotic comment, lose 5,000 unskilled jobs. So that means no more building, no one working in shops, no waiters or waitresses at your local restaurant. I can’t see you “stooping” to do such a job as its beneath you I imagine?
Nothing wrong with having an unskilled job, if I am made redundant I wouldn’t be bothered what work I do.
#6
Bella, there are plenty of jobs going, sadly most Jersey folk (born and bred) are too lazy or find menial jobs beneath them.
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27
Jersey folk or UK folk are no lazier than any other folk IMO,but it is an easy option to tar them.
On the other side of the coin many foreign labour will take any job,not because they are better workers,but they would have to leave if they had no work.
Compared to their wages back home they are on to a good thing otherwise they would not stay here.
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Just remember locals..its non local money that runs this island. Dont hear anyone complaining about that. Its a well known fact that locals are lazy and enjoy the benefits we provide for them.
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lets have a proper imigration policy other than , arriving and managing to pay the rent .
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“lose 5,000 unskilled jobs. So that means no more building, no one working in shops, no waiters or waitresses at your local restaurant”
Not exactly but it would mean much less building. It would also mean an end to the non-locally owned fulfillment industry (1,500-2,000 jobs, mainly filled by recent economic migrants being paid the minimum wage). I would also be happy with a much smaller retail sector. It’s going to happen anyway: most people buy what they can over the internet.
Also, I would question what benefits the agriculture sector brings to Jersey. Yes, there’s a lot of jobs at minimum wage for non locals and a few rich farmers. But there is an awful lot of nitrate pollution and bad farming practice as well (anyone in jersey ever heard of crop rotation?).
Look, the choice is simple: Jersey is a nice place to live. We either limit the number of jobs or we lose control of the level of population.
I just don’t think that allowing the population to grow so that unskilled people can get jobs building more and more flats or piling more and more pesticides onto fields above water catchment areas, or stuffing DVDs into envelopes so Tesco makes more profit, is particularly sustainable.
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#28 Bella, some people will never get it because their own education system was so different. Jersey and UK kids are raised with a system that wrongly says that to be someone you have to have a degree.
Some people come here intentionally making the choice to ‘give up their life’ for say 5 years. This allows them to save money to buy a house in their home country. Someone from Jersey or the UK cannot really do this, their friends and family will still be near enough to expect time and attention and it will cause long-term problems if they don’t get it. Nor would someone from Jersey or the UK be able to earn enough to buy a house back home so the ‘giving up of their life’ to work all the hours there are would simply continue indefinitely, rather than beign time-limited!
If someone chooses to give up their life for work then that is their choice, it is entirely wrong of them to expect anyone else to do likewise, some people realise that friends and family are important and work cannot be the be all and end all.
#29 It’s local money too and your comments would be disgusting if they just weren’t so obviously untrue!
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31 – Thank you, I could not have put it better myself.
But I would add that these economic low wage migrants can get income support after 5 years – no I do not know why either.
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The level of unemployment has a big effect on crime and drug use.
High unemployment can destroy a society and as most of our unemployed live in town it could ruin town.
This is not just about jobs and benefits this will have broad long term consequences regarding just how safe it is to be in Jersey.
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Personally as a true Jerseyman I am ashamed of some of the anti migrant worker posts on this site, I half expect the ghettos of St Helier to be cleared in some overnight exercise.
Jersey has had waves of migrant workers over the years Irish, Italian, French, Portuguese, some Kenyan, Polish. Some stay only a shoert time some stay longer. They fill jobs locals don’t actually want initially, increase the gene pool, stay longer pay taxes, raise second generations, make the island more multicultural and interesting to live.
By it’s very nature the migrant workforce is self policing, if there is no work they will migrate to where there is work.
There are a lot of businesses who were it not for the migrant workforce would either not exist or have to shut down, reducing tax income to the island and the health of our economy.
It seems we are surrounded by lazy locals who somehow beleive they are owed a job simply by being local. Those days have long gone, you get a job by being educated, hardworking, turning up for work everyday not just Tuesday to Friday and continuing your qualifictions whilst working (these could be practiacal or intellectual qualifications).
If other locals can’t cope with the requirements of 2010 maybe we can buy several hundred portacabins and stick them at Plemeont as our first trailer park.
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Eddy
As a hard working, high tax paying, law abiding Jersey bean I am ashamed of your stereotypical comments!
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@35 Rock Steady
You may be shocked to learn that there actually are some people on this rock that are dying to get back into the job game but have other reasons as to why they can’t. Child care costs are one.
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Certain irony in comment 6. Bella, you don’t want to have more immigration into Jersey but seem to think that is appropriate for Jersey locals to “leave in droves” to seek a better life in another country – where of course they will be immigrants themselves. This is a very one sided view about the free movement of labour.
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#35 Some despicable comments from migrants levelled at locals too, kind of like the lazy locals comment you made. Much as it seems a very odd concept, there are lazy migrant workers too. Being physically present at work doesn’t mean they’re not avoiding every opportunity to actually do hard work, especially if paid by the hour.
With locals it may not be a case of being ‘owed’ a job so much as ‘where else can they get one?’ Good luck getting a job in Germany or Poland without being fluent in the native tongue, and of course some locals with the dreaded stamp don’t have the option at all. Other English-speaking nations have VISA systems.
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Eddy 35.
Well said.
Leah Holmes 39.
The majority of indigenous islanders are hard working and committed. Therefore, the ‘lazy beans’ title is not directed at the entire idigenous population, but rather at all the ‘States-housed-freeloader-beans’ who have never done a day’s work in their lives and are currently pushing their offsprings in the same direction.
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Funny comment from Eddy. Perhaps if you are a true Jerseyman then this is why Jersey is in a mess. Your sappy outlook has no backbone. I hope to goodness that most Jersey people are not so weak and wet as that otherwise God help us all!
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There is another side to the question of the habitually unemployed. Despite the 5 year rule putting a little pressure on employers, bosses can afford to be choosy in times like these, and they would generally prefer poaching someone else’s hard-working and experienced staff to taking on layabouts for the sake of getting them out of the dole queue. It is no good wanting to make the sick,lazy or stupid work for their livings, unless you have work for the sick, lazy or stupid waiting to be done.
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The level of income support doesn’t encourage people to work, I had the misfortune to be out of work for 5 months this year and i was actually better off than i am now that i’m back in full-time employment. Also i think immigrants have things made very easy for them, they get interpreteurs to help them understand things when they are trying to claim income support!! Would I get these benefits if i went to live in a foreign country, where i couldn’t speak the language or understand it???
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There are banks leaving Jersey making people who are not stupid or lazy unemployed.
More banks are about to leave, it is not the fault of the employee his bank has chosen to re locate and down size staff.
It is time that we realise this economic downturn is going to bite. Wake up it is going to get worse and there will be and are people desperate for work who are not lazy are stupid.
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44. Can you tell me which bank(s) have recently left the island?
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#40 How do you know that’s what Eddy meant?
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It is quite likely that the finance industry will employ less people in future years.
We are really only at the beginning of online banking and computerisation and an obvious way to increase profits is to shed staff and use more machines.
The rise of more outsourcing and competition from a growing array of cheaper jurisdictions is inevitable with better communications turning the world into a global village.
One of the reasons for Jersey’s past success was the fact that it was handy for London, one of the world’s premier financial centres. London will continue to be very important but we are far from the action and a lot more expensive than mant places that could tempt the BRIC countries if they turn into the economic power houses of the twenty first century.
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Pip – online bankign etc, has nothign to do with the finance industry in Jersey. What gives Jersey the benefit is the professional management, investments, and ownership structure of trusts and funds.
It is the human decision makign lement which gives Jersey the benefit rather than computerised on-shore banking.
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Actually it does affect Jersey.
I used to use a local stockbroker who I would call on the phone to deal, they sent out investment letters and I got contract notes and share certificates by mail.
Now I use an execution only broker who I deal with over the Internet, I have a personal Crest account, receive all my contract notes by email and pay by electronic transfer.
I subscribe to the Financial Times online which gives me five years of searchable articles at the click of a mouse.
My grandfather wrote out bank statements by hand and client details were kept in giant ledgers. This is what happened in living memory, it is now all gone.
Within the next twenty years computers will change the world of white collar work in a profound way.
Already computers are making investment decisions, dealing shares to protect market positions or in some cases to make substantial profits.
There will always be jobs for the tall trees like top fund managers and lawyers but there is plenty of scope for clearing out the underbrush on less than £100K to improve profitability!
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38
I kid you not,many locals have left,not for a better life style but because there is very little prospect of getting a job and the high cost of living.
I know 6 families from UK who have upped sticks and left after being here many many years and never thought they would leave,why do you think so many houses are up for sale?
Local means any-one who has settled here surely?
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