I was hardly surprised to see that Leanne Wood was unimpressed with the comments of Cardiff University Professor, Patrick Minford in today's Western Mail.
It's all very well saying that those who are claiming should be "more flexible", but sometimes, there just aren't jobs available.
To take the Rhondda as an example, in mid-September there were 270 live vacancies at the local Jobcentre Plus but 1,580 claimants - that's 1 job for every 5 claimants.
How about Clwyd South where there's 168 jobs for 990 claimants? That's the same ratio.
Ynys Mon's pretty much the same - 269 live unfilled vacancies for 1,172 claimants. Almost the same.
Wales needs to develop an entrenepeurial, improved work-based culture that treats people well, looks after them, nurtures their talents and gets them to contribute to the society in which we live.
This can only be achieved by valuing people, not writing them off and dismissing them.
As we suffer through a downturn not of our making, we must inspire Welsh based industries to grow in their communities, and then, through job creation and fair redistribution, we will get the fairer society that we are working towards.
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2 comments:
Hi Ian
If you look at the figure, the incapacity claimant count for the Rhondda is 8,000 plus. The figures you have quoted are for Job Seekers Allowance only, as far as I can see. If the people actively seeking jobs (JSA claimants) outnumber vacancies, those currently on incapacity benefit stand next to no chance of getting a job.
Nor do the figures include those that will be shifted from other benefits to JSA under the DWP's new proposals.
Not that this is likely to stop them pressing ahead with the plans.
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