Transcript Presentation

New Labour at work
Long-term unemployment and the
geography of opportunity
Nik Theodore, University of Illinois at Chicago
Tough love, American style


Britain would benefit from Clinton’s
tough love: Forcing people to finding a job,
which has worked in America, is a policy
New Labour should adopt (Observer, 3
September 2006)
‘Too many British live on benefit for no better
reason than they don’t want to work and
there is too little insistence that they show
determination and resource in finding some’
(Hutton, 2006).
Hutton on U.S. welfare reform I




Benefit rolls have declined
Poverty rate among African-American
children fell to its lowest level in 2000
‘Even cases of child maltreatment
have fallen’
US welfare reform has ‘worked even
better that its architects imagined…’
Hutton on U.S. welfare reform II



Some teenagers suffer from a lack of
parenting
There ‘is a hard core of 10% of single
mothers and other claimants in
desperate straits who have neither
benefit nor work’
‘Poverty is still widespread’
New Labour at work
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
Tony Blair: rethinking ‘the whole of our
philosophy in relation to the labour
market’
Embrace of new growth theories that
call for an emphasis on macroeconomic stability and supply-side
intervention
The geography of opportunity

Will Hutton: ‘Too many British live on
benefit for no better reason than they
don’t want to work and there is too little
insistence that they show
determination and resource in finding
some’ (Observer, 3 September 2006).
The geography of opportunity
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
David Blunkett: ‘Jobs are there for the
taking in most parts of the country’ …
‘there is no hiding place’ for those who
don’t accept their responsibility to find
work (2001).
John Hutton: ‘can’t work – won’t work
culture’ (2007)
The geography of opportunity

HM Treasury: ‘the worst
concentrations of joblessness are in
very small defined areas and are not
caused by a lack of jobs…’ (2003).
The state you’re in
Unemployment rate
Share LTU
1975
4.6%
14.8%
1985
11.5%
48.7%
European Commission, 1991
Final Report to the Second European Poverty Program
Relationship between local inactivity
rate and local unemployment rate, 2005
Economic Inactivity Rate
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
Unemployment Rate
10.0
12.0
14.0
Unemployment Count
Total and long-term claimant
unemployment, 1983–2007
4,000,000
3,500,000
3,000,000
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
Total Unemployed
Long-Term
Unemployed
8 3 98 7 990 99 3 99 6 00 0 003 00 6
9
r 1 ry 1 ril 1 ly 1 er 1 ry 2 ril 2 ly 2
e
b ua Ap Ju o b ua Ap Ju
o
t
t an
n
c
c
a
O
J
O
J
Year
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Unemployed
Long-term
unemployed
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
07
Percent leaving claimant rolls for
employment
Share of unemployed who found
jobs, Britain, 1998-2008
Year
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
6 months or less
3,000
1 year or more
2 years or more
2,000
1,000
Year
08
20
07
20
06
20
05
20
04
20
03
20
02
20
01
20
00
20
99
19
98
0
19
Number of claimants leaving rolls for
employment
Number of claimants leaving benefit
rolls for employment, North East,
1998-2008
New Deal for Young People
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440,000 participants
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
41% moved into employment
34% moved into ‘sustained’ jobs lasting
13+ weeks
‘about half of those who found work
would have done so anyway’ given the
cyclical expansion of the economy
Jane Millar 2000
New Deal for the Long-Term
Unemployed

New Deal for the Long-Term
Unemployed: 238,000 participants by
February 2000 – 38,000 found jobs
(only 32,000 found jobs lasting 13
weeks or more).
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2000
Discussion
Discussion

Robin Beveridge, Economic Inclusion Strategy
Manager, One NorthEast
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Kim Smith, Regional Employability Framework
Manager, One NorthEast
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Dave Wright, External Partnerships Manager, Job
Centre Plus