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Introducing Social Policy > Employment > Flashcards

Employment Flashcards

1
Q

What are the Reasons to Work?

A

Material Needs:

  • Securing an income
  • We live in an advanced capitalist society
  • We work as it’’s a citizenship obligation
  • Work acts as a foundation/building/support, and ties us all together

Social Needs:

  • Provides identity - work is part of your identity
  • In some societies, your name represented your work (eg Susan Baker)
  • Allows us to make friends, socialise, engage in social participation, etc.
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2
Q

What 2 types of needs does work fulfill?

A

Material Needs

Social Needs

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3
Q

How does work tie into social policy?

A

Social policy is underpinned by work – work provides the resources
Work related stress, lack of sleep – social policy tries to stop work being dehumanising, etc. through regulations, occupational psychologists, etc.
Making people job ready
Raising the retirement age - making sure people are paying enough taxes to fund all goods & services, and also making sure the right proportion of the population is in the work force

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4
Q

What areas does policy intervention look at in employment?

A 
Wage subsidies
Unemployment
Education & Training
Employment Regulations
Retirement
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5
Q

What kind of policy frameworks exist to guarantee quantity and quality Guaranteed?

A

1940s
‘Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment’
1948, Universal Declaration of Human Right

2000s
Sustainable Development Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and suitable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
2015, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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6
Q

What are the Changing labour markets and patterns of employment?

A

Beveridge’s Plan:
- assumed that unemployment was ‘frictional’, not ‘structural’
- very few people were in long-term unemployment, because it was frictional, and takes their decision
This was apparent in the 90s.

This discusses the decline of the male industrial model and what this means for the assumptions on which the Beveridge plan was based…..

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7
Q

What is Structural Unemployment?

A

Occurs when there is a long term decline for the goods + services in an industry

It is to do with the Immobility of Labour (occupational or geographical)

Occupational: It is very difficult to find work in another industry if the skills they have aren’t transferable or needed

Geographical: Workers are not willing to move to a different place to find a job

Also, labour may be replaced by Capital (Machinery)

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8
Q

What is Frictional Unemployment?

A

When you have left a job, and are looking for another

This is very common; and also why there can never be 100% full employment

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9
Q

What did the 1981 book ‘What Employment Means’ by Adrian Sinfield discuss?

A

The longer you’re unemployed, the poorer you become, the worse off you are.

Beveridge was also concerned with the quality of jobs, and the choices of jobs available to those looking for work, but this book highlighted the experience of unemployment and was a precursor of many contemporary studies and texts that examine the impact of lack of employment on people’s physical and mental health and well-being, personal relationships, access to other welfare resources, opportunities for social participation, and importantly in contemporary debates….its effects on social mobility – the scarring effects of unemployment

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10
Q

What were the the unemployment rates in the UK and Europe in 2017?

A

UK is 4.4%
EU is 7.5%
Every country from Belgium onwards is worrying (Belgium has an unemployment rate of 7%)
Greece is 20.5% (disappointed but not surprised)
Iceland is the best with 3.3%

Source: Eurostat
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Unemployment_rates,_seasonally_adjusted,November_2017(%25)_F2.png

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11
Q

How has Japan’s employment rate been over time?

A

Japan has made a reasonable recovery

Was at 5.3% in 2009 (due to GFC), now at 2.8% in 2017

Sauce:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/chart-japanese-unemployment-tumbles-to-the-lowest-level-since-1994-2017-3

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12
Q

How have the unemployment rates in the EU, Japan and US changed from Jan 2000 - Nov 2017? What is this an effect of?

A

All had a surge from 2006-2008
Then rapidly shot up in 2009
For the EA19/EU28 it carried on increasing till 2013, when it dropped
For Japan and the US, it decreased from 2009/

Japan always had the lowest unemployment rate (2.8-5.5%), then the US ((4-10%), then Europe (6.8-12.2%)

The effects of processes of globalisation

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13
Q

What happened to the Employment Share of Manufacturing in the G7 Countries (1962-2008)? What is this an effect of?

A

For all 7, they decreased.

(From 1962-2008)
Germany: 35% - 18%
UK: 31% - 10%
Italy: 25% - 20%
Japan: 22% - 17%
France: 24% - 13%
Canada: 24% - 12%
US: 22% - 10%

The effects of deindustrialisation and the end of the ‘48, 48, 48’ male industrial model

Sauce:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/283905/ep31-de-industrialisation-and-balance-of-payments.pdf

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14
Q

What is meant by deindustrialisation on the male industrial model?

A

48 48 48 model: work fr 48 hours, for 48 weeks a year, for 48 years
- Most men were expected to follow this

De-industrialisation has changed the model

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15
Q

What is meant by Non-Standard Employment?

A

Regards the assumption that there is a clear distinction between ‘employment’ and ‘unemployment’; and what counts as each.

  • e.g working 48 hours a week - won’t supply a good lifestyle; but does it count as unemployment?
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16
Q

What does the EU data service Eurostat now collect data on, in terms of unemployment?

A

The EU data service Eurostat now collects data on additional indicators of unemployment:

  • Underemployed part-time workers
  • Persons available for work but not seeking work
  • Persons seeking work but not immediately available

37% of underemployed part-time workers were still in that category a year later, but not necessarily in the same job

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17
Q

What is meant by underemployment?

A

Those who are employed, but are not working to their full potential

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18
Q

How has Insecurity in Employment risen?

A

In the UK part-time and temporary employment have risen since 2007 so although more people are in employment they are not always in full-time, secure jobs

Between 2014-2015 the proportion of employees on zero-hours contracts rose from 2% to 2.4%
This figure counts towards the UK employment rate.

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19
Q

How is evidence of Insecurity in Employment cocntested?

A

In a recent study Gallie et al (2016) found higher levels of job insecurity in public services and high tech, among workers aged 35+ in the latter but class was a bigger factor in the former (survey data with sample of 2,949 in 2012)

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20
Q

What is the ‘demand for skills’ based on?

A

Based on the assumption that there are clear divisions between ‘manual’ and ‘mental’ skills that map onto routes into labour markets

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21
Q

What are the 5 different types of Occupied population by social class, and how did the proportion of them change in the UK from 1911-1991?

A 
Professional: 1% - 5%
Managerial and Technical: 13% - 32%
Skilled: 37% - 34%
Partly skilled: 39% - 22%
Unskilled: 10% - 6%
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22
Q

What is special about the largest employers in each sector in 2018?

A

The increase in technology stops employment

In 2018:
Worlds largest taxi company owns no taxis (Uber)
Largest accommodation provider owns no properties (Airbnb)
Largest phone companies own no telecom infrastructure (Skype, WeChat)
Most popular media owner creates no content (Facebook)
Worlds largest film theatre has no cinemas (Netflix)
Largest software vendors don’t write apps (Apple and Google)

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23
Q

What are the Changes in Demand for Skills?

A

The increase in technology stops employment

There is a continuing polarisation of work, characterised over a decade ago by Goos and Manning (2003) as a divide between ‘Mac jobs’ and ‘Mcjobs’
McJob: slang for a low-paying, low-prestige dead-end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement.
McJob: comes from the name of the fast-food restaurant McDonald’s, but is used to describe any low-status job – regardless of the employer – where little training is required, staff turnover is high, and workers’ activities are tightly regulated by managers.

In the UK in 2005, 13% of those aged between 19 and retirement age possessed no formal qualifications (The Leitch Report, HM Treasury 2006) and in England 9 million (more than 25%) of those aged 16-64 had low literacy and numeracy (OECD, 2013)

23% of vacancies are ‘hard to fill’ due to skill shortages (43% in skilled trades but also high in construction and finance) BUT 2m workers have skills that are under-utilised in the workplace

‘14 per cent of employers reported skills gaps within their establishment, with approximately 1.4 million staff lacking proficiency in their current role (five per cent of the UK workforce)…….The most common skills deemed to be lacking among existing staff were people and personal skills relating to workload management and teamwork. Specialist, job-specific skills were also widely considered to be lacking, along with complex analytical skills.’

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24
Q

What is the feminisation of the labour force?

A

Based on the assumption that women (and especially married women) would be carers not workers

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25
Q

How has the Proportion of women in total employment (UK) changed?

A

1931: 29.8%
1998: 46.4%

26
Q

What is the employment rate in 2017, for females and males?

A 
2017:
Female employment rate 
70.8%
Male employment rate 
79.4%
27
Q

What are the Key challenges for policy makers and examples of two policy ideas to meet them?

A

Policy-makers now need to reconcile

  • Changes in the amount/security of employment and the need to ‘smooth’ incomes through the social security system
  • Different patterns in the demand for skills and the need to reverse the cumulative disadvantage experienced by those with low levels of education and skills
  • Women’s increasing participation in paid employment and the need to address the care deficit that persistent gender inequalities creates
28
Q

What is the idea of ‘Flexicurity’?

A

Flexicurity is an integrated strategy for enhancing, at the same time, flexibility and security in the labour market. It attempts to reconcile employers’ need for a flexible workforce with workers’ need for security – confidence that they will not face long periods of unemployment.

29
Q

What is the idea of a basic/citizens income scheme?

A

A universal basic income is an income paid to individuals, as a right of legal residence, without means testing or requirements to work. The payment is non taxable and should be sufficient to cover basic needs. Everyone who qualifies for the payment will receive it from birth till death. Having a basic income in place will provide a secure floor for people to build on rather than a safety net with holes so big many fall through.

30
Q

What are in general developments in employments and labour markets?

A
  • Employments been through some rough times in the last decade
  • The 2008 GFC caused a spike in employment, but one not as bad as 20/30 years ago
  • Changes in the structure of the labour market – much more self employment
31
Q

What is meant by the Distance from the Labour Market?

A

•Recent policy thinking has allowed distinguishing the unemployed in 4 groups, in terms of distance from the labour market. It is an imprecise but common notion.

Close to the labour market

  • Job ready
  • Have skills to offer
  • Can be beneficial to employer

• Not close to e labour market, but potential to get there soon

  • Skills are rusty
  • With some training, they can come back

• Far from the labour market

  • Not confident in skills
  • Low motivation
  • Need a lot of training to work

•Outside the labour market

  • Really not likely to work
  • E.g. Severely disabled
32
Q

What two ways are present to tackle unemployment?

A

Work First Approaches

Human Capital Development Approaches

33
Q

What are Work First Approaches?

A

Immediate emphasis on job entry; focus on getting people into work quickly. Job search and work-focused training (e.g. work trials). Emphasis on compulsion.

Getting people into work, and quickly
Training, CV work, etc
Immediate emphasis on job entry

34
Q

What are Human Capital Development Approaches?

A

Improve employability (through education, skills training, health, and personal development) to expand range of opportunities. Encourages voluntary participation; emphasis on trust. Supports progression in workplace.

Improving people’s employability
Expand their range of opportunities
Education, health, personal development, etc
More emphasis on volunteering, and gaining trust
Develop people’s human capital

35
Q

What policies and programmes combine both Work First Approaches and Human Capital Development Approaches?

A

Policies and programmes often combine the two approaches:

JSA claimants is more WF

ESA claimants is an equal balance of the two

Apprenticeships are WF, but not as WF as JSA claimants

WF is more for those close to the labour market

36
Q

What is meant by Labour Demand, and Labour Supply?

A

Labour Demand

  • Comes from employments
  • They have Vacancies
  • They Create new jobs

Labour Supply

  • Those who can supply the work
  • The employed
  • They provide skills, qualifications & experience
  • This varies from person to person
37
Q

What is the link of Health and Work?

A

They’re closely related
Work is good for you, no work is bad for you
The evidence is clear that work and health are linked. Appropriate work is good for an individual’s physical and mental health. Being out of work is associated with a range of poor health outcomes.

Bad/No work leads to the deterioration of physical & mental health
Some jobs are better than others
Policy making in making jobs healthier
Job retention (preventing people losing their jobs)
Presenteeism

38
Q

What is the Disability Employment Gap?

A

Almost 1 in 3 working-age people in the UK have a long-term health condition which puts their participation in work at risk.
The ‘disability employment gap’ is the difference between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people

80% of non-disabled are employed, 48& of disabled are employed. Similar things are found in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norwway, and in general OECD countries.

39
Q

What is the link of Women and Employment?

A
  • Women make up 47% of the workforce

* Women’s employment is currently at a 24 year high

40
Q

How is there discrimination of Women and Employment?

A 
o Pay gap 
o Children and caring 
o Career opportunities 
o Discrimination 
o Work-Life Balance 
o Underrepresentation in senior positions
41
Q

What is the link of Young People and Unemployment?

A

This varies from region to region:

London, West Midlands and Yorkshire & The Humber have the highest youth unemployment rates (2011)

The South West and South East had th least (2011)

In 2015, all figures across England, Scotland and Wales decreased.

42
Q

What policies are there to fix Youth Unemployment?

A
  1. Youth Obligation, from Apr 2017
     18-21 year olds must get a job/start an apprenticeship/start a traineeship/do work experience, or lose benefits
2. Apprenticeships (1-4 yrs) 
 Work alongside experienced staff 
 Gain job-specific skills 
 Earn a wage and get holiday pay 
 Study towards a qualification
  1. Youth Engagement Fund
     Aimed at disadvantaged youth to engaged in education & training
  2. Youth Offer
     Work experience and sector-based work academy starts for 18 to 24 year olds funded by the Youth Offer up to and including November 2015.
43
Q

What are the ‘new’ employment classes to do with?

A
  • 7 clusters/typology of workers, with different levels of economic insecurity
  • Ranges from lowest to highest job insecurity
44
Q

What are the ‘new’ employment classes?

A
  1. The chronically precarious: (“reliably broke”) - typically on a steady contract with low pay. Low job satisfaction and little autonomy. 60% have < £1,000 saved. Typical job: full-time sales assistant.
  2. The acutely precarious: usually broke but with “yoyo-ing” income. Work often low-paid but irregular. This is a young group and 45% have a degree. Typical job: zero-hours hospitality.
  3. The flexi-workers: love their job, even if it doesn’t pay well. 83% satisfied at work but 59% earn < £21,000 a year. High levels of savings. Many redundant, “second careerers”. Value autonomy over security. Typical job: freelance photographer.
  4. The steady-staters: feel well treated (90%) and well paid (69%). But low savings, and rely on work for income so are vulnerable to a shock. Their routine jobs are at high risk of automation. Typical job: public sector administrator.
  5. The idealists: mid-earning, passionate and young (50% under 35), 70% think they make a positive contribution to society. Most likely to rely on others (e.g. parents) for income although 25% have more than £10,000 saved. Typical job: charity employee.
  6. The strivers: Have regular jobs with high income and high savings, but worry the link between hard work and fair pay has broken: 73% are stressed but only 20% think their pay reflects their efforts. Typical job: middle manager.
  7. The high-flyers: the wealthiest group: 55% have more than £10,000 in savings. High autonomy and high fulfilment. Good at adapting to automation, most likely to value new technology. Typical job: director of an IT services business.
45
Q

What are the arguments of immigration and employment?

A

• Dey took our jobs!
- DURK A DUR

EVIDENCE:
• Home Office 2014
- There’s no evidence, just the daily mail like to provoke anger for money
- And even if immigrants did take jobs…:
 It’s cos Muhammad from Libya has 2 masters & a PhD and Steve, 32 from Norwich has 3 BTECs and a STI

A ‘popular myth’?

  • Overall employment is rising in the UK.
  • Employment among non-British nationals is rising faster than employment among British nationals.
46
Q

What did Theresa My argue about immigration and employment?

A

“If you are … someone who finds themselves out of work or on lower wages because of low-skilled immigration, life simply doesn’t seem fair.”

(Theresa May, Conservative Party Conference, October 2016)

47
Q

What are the Effects of an Ageing Workforce?

A

• The average age of retirement had increased
o Men - 1984: 63-64 2012: 65
o Women - 194: 60-61 2012: 62-63

•Reasons for this increase includes:
o Raising the age for the state retirement pension
 Cos they can’t afford it

o Abolition of compulsory retirement at 65
 They can’t afford it

o Policy attention to ‘extending working lives’

48
Q

What issues are involved in employment?

A 
Work and health
Women and employment 
Young people and employment
In work poverty and job insecurity
Immigration and employment
Ageing workforce
49
Q

What is the Significance of social networks in job seeking?

A

There is evidence that social networks can play an important role in transitions to work. Hannan (1999)

Levesque and White’s (2001 argue that the range and diversity of social network resources available to the long-term unemployed can be the defining factor determining successful transitions to work, with a broad range of weak social network ties (i.e. work acquaintances rather than close friends or family) ‘validating’ the human capital of job seekers by providing access to references and good-quality vacancy information

Nevertheless, there remains clear evidence that effective social networking can facilitate transitions to (and within) work, and so at least reinforce individuals’ labour market status and employability. People with access to diverse, work-based networks are generally more likely to locate a ‘resource-rich’ contact person, with greater potential to positively impact on job search outcomes (Lai et al., 1998).

50
Q

To what extent do long-term unemployed people in disadvantaged areas struggle to access the kind of social networks (i.e. contacts with people working in relevant occupations and sectors) that can potentially lead to more useful job search information?

A

Research undertaken in the US (Wilson, 1996) has pointed to the links between social network structure and poverty, with residents of ‘segregated’, disadvantaged urban areas finding the range and quality of their employment networks limited by poverty and social isolation.

Long term unemployment by some, especially in disadvantaged areas, can lead to undermined confidence and reinforce geographical isolation.

MacDonald et al.’s (2005) – youth in disadvantaged English neighbourhoods have strong, but tightly knit social networks; limited to friends & family/ immediate locality. This can close down employment opportunities, and only limit them to local jobs.

Gallie et al. (2003), the ‘tertiary sphere of sociability’ - unemployed people are less likely to participate in organised social activity, through religious institutions, social/sports clubs or community organisations

  • What is clear is that where long-term unemployed people are excluded from this tertiary sphere of sociability, there are potential implications for both the further erosion of social networks, and broader socio-psychological and mental health problems.
51
Q

Is the experience of longterm unemployment in itself associated with a more general erosion of social/community?

A

A basic analysis of unemployed people’s use of job search methods demonstrated that social networking played an important role, but was one search strategy among many.

Long-term unemployed people were significantly less likely (5 per cent level) to report socialising on at least a weekly basis with friends/family (29 per cent, compared to 46 per cent of those unemployed for less than one year).

Only 11 per cent of long-term unemployed people reported being involved in such social activities (for example, attending a sports or social club) on a weekly basis, compared to 26 per cent of other job seekers

Finally, it is important to note that those unemployed for one year or more were significantly more likely (1 per cent level using chi squared test) to live alone (51 per cent, compared to 31 per cent of other job seekers).

52
Q

Is there a role for social policy in seeking to help the long-term unemployed and other job seekers to develop and broaden social networks and activities?

A

There is some evidence that policy makers are increasingly focusing on the relationship between social capital and employability.

At the time of the research, ‘micro-neighbourhoods’ in Glasgow were being targeted by a local authority-led ‘Full Employment Areas Initiative’, which facilitated the development of social networks based around looking for, or even just thinking about, work.

Elsewhere in the UK, employability initiatives such as ‘Working Neighbourhoods’ and ‘City Strategies’ have sought to integrate supply-side labour market policies with measures to promote community interaction and social engagement within disadvantaged areas

However, there are dangers in seeing policies to promote social capital building as a panacea for area-based social exclusion. Crucially, an emphasis on the social aspects of employability should not be allowed to detract from the need for ‘hard’ economic regeneration in inner cities.

53
Q

What is the policy shift from unemployment to worklessness?

A

The term workless used to be interchangeable with unemployed & jobless, but it has come to be extended to include the economically inactive- those who are sick & disabled, and lone parents not working, who are being classifies in terms of distance from employment, ‘closer to’ or ’further from’ the market.

54
Q

What is High unemployment’s impact on wider society?

A

Recession has more impact on more workers

Individualistic reasons neglect overall rates

55
Q

What are the unemployment rates for white vs BAME groups?

A

The unemployment rate was 4.0% for the White ethnic group compared to 7.8% for people from BAME, although the rate varied between different ethnic minority groups.

Both these figures have decreased over the past year: In July-September 2016, the unemployment rate was 4.6% for the White ethnic group and 8.5% for people from a BAME background.”

(House of Commons)

56
Q

What are the unemployment rates for men vs women?

A

4.8% for men, 4.1% for women

57
Q

What is the % employment rate from 16-64 (Sept-Nov 2016)?

A

Northern Ireland: 69.3%

North East : 70.5%

West Midlands: 72.4%

Wales: 72.5%

North West: 73.0%

Scotland: 73.4%

Yorkshire and The Humber: 73.6%

London: 73.8%

East Midlands: 75.8%

East: 76.5%

South West : 77.3%

South East: 78.2%

58
Q

What are the 5 main types of active employment programmes?

A 
Employment Services
Labour Market Training
Youth Programmes
Subsidised Employment
Measures for Disabled People
59
Q

How much does the labour Market contribute to GDP?

A

0.6% across the OECD in 2011

The highest spenders in the OECD allocated 1.0% - 2.2% of their GDP on activation policies.
The lowest allocated 0.1% - 0.2%.

60
Q

What other dimensions on social policy have influence on employment?

A

Education
Immigration Policies
Famly Policies

Introducing Social Policy (3 decks)

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