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UK unemployment rate falls to five-year low

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Post by Guest Wed May 14, 2014 2:13 pm

The number of people out of work in the UK fell by 133,000 to a fresh five-year low of 2.2 million in the three months to March, official figures show.

The jobless rate also fell to a five-year low of 6.8%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The number of people in work rose to 30.43 million, the highest since records began in 1971, helped by a rise in self-employment.

Average earnings in the three months to March were up 1.7% from a year earlier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27406457


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Post by Fred Wed May 14, 2014 6:33 pm

Plan A isn't working according to Labour. We need to tax people to death and companies like France is doing.


Ooops it is working and Labours plans look frankly ridiculous. Have the dimwits on here even realised. You bet they haven't they are simply too dense to even acknowledge it and are still backing plan B.

What donks.

Can we trust the two Eds with the economy? You bet we can't.

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Post by Guest Wed May 14, 2014 7:44 pm

Well it was bound to with 3million on zero hours contracts, most of them not getting enough work to live on and the State having to subsidise it.

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Post by Guest Wed May 14, 2014 8:13 pm

Sassy wrote:Well it was bound to with 3million on zero hours contracts, most of them not getting enough work to live on and the State having to subsidise it.


Really, 3 million?

So you just multiple by six times the figures and expect people to buy that?

https://fullfact.org/live/2014/apr/zero_hours_contracts_have_the_numbers_doubled-31238

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Post by Irn Bru Wed May 14, 2014 9:42 pm

Alright said Fred wrote:Plan A isn't working according to Labour. We need to tax people to death and companies like France is doing.


Ooops it is working and Labours plans look frankly ridiculous. Have the dimwits on here even realised. You bet they haven't they are simply too dense to even acknowledge it and are still backing plan B.

What donks.

Can we trust the two Eds with the economy? You bet we can't.

If Osborne's Plan A had worked we wouldn't have borrowed billions more than he predicted. We would practically have written down the deficit by now and we wouldn't have lost our AAA credit status. He inherited an economy that had returned to growth but he binned it and drove the economy down to a level where over 90% of the nation are actually worse off by thousands of pounds now.
He's driven our workforce down to almost third world standards and values because that's where he feels we need to be to compete with countries like India and China - on their level where we can compete for contract to make footballs for the FA.
The recovery is only a recovery for a few - not the many.
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Post by Guest Wed May 14, 2014 9:52 pm

There are an estimated 2.7m zero-hour contracts in Britain according to a new figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

They consist of the headline figure of 1.4m contracts under which employees worked some hours in the fortnight beginning 20 January 2014, and a further 1.3m contracts where employees were not given any hours at all in that two-week sample period. The latter figure could include people who have found another job but remain on the books and the ONS said it would be investigating further to refine its estimate.

It’s the first time the ONS has surveyed businesses to produce an estimate of the number of zero-hours contracts. Previous estimates relied on the Labour Force Survey, which reported that in February, 583,000 people said they were on zero-hours contracts as their primary employment.

The ONS says the dramatically larger figure from the business survey may be partly explained by the fact that some people have several zero-hours contracts, perhaps with different employers. But the ONS also suggested that some employees may not realise they are on a zero-hours contract, even if their employer does.

The business survey numbers do not include workers who are engaged on a self-employed basis, even though they may work for just one company. So it’s likely that the new figures do reflect the reality that the extent of zero-hours contracts is significantly larger than previously thought.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/apr/30/new-data-on-zero-hours-contracts-adds-to-a-worrying-picture

My grandaughter has just found she is on a zero hours contract, after being told she was on a 35 hr week contract.   She was told that her contract was for an average of 35 hours a week.   They took advantage of the fact this was her first job and she was a bit naive therefore, and shoved the contract under her nose to sign when she was very busy and had lots of customers to see to and told her it had to be signed there and then.   So she signed it.   All of a sudden her hours are being cut back.   When she complained and said that she was supposed to be on a 35hr contract, they told her she'd have to put up with the hours as she was on a zero hours contact, and showed her the sentence at the bottom in very tiny type.

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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 7:39 am

Zero-hours contracts (where neither employer nor employee are obliged to offer or work any minimum number of hours) were back in the news again today amid claims that the Royal Bank of Scotland is helping businesses draw up the contentious form of employment contract.
The Independent stated that:
“last month it emerged that 583,000 people, more than double the Government’s official estimate, were forced to sign up to the conditions last year”.
Recent estimates released for 2013 do show the number has doubled since 2012.
UK unemployment rate falls to five-year low Zhcs

But, as we’ve explained in a previous article, estimates of the number of people working under the contracts relies on people being able to correctly identify their contractual arrangements.
The Office of National Statistics has warned that:
“increased awareness of [zero-hours contracts] among employees may have affected how people respond following increased media coverage in the latter half of 2013.”
While the Government had previously cited a figure of 250,000 for October to December 2012 before these statistics were released (the ‘official estimate’ to which we think the article refers), they too have warned of the unreliability of the figures.
The ONS hopes to release new data next month, this time based on information given by employers. It is hoped this will provide a more accurate picture.


Facts Sassy

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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 7:40 am

Huge surge in workers tied to zero-hour deals” The Guardian, 1 May 2014
“Workers on unfair zero hours contracts have risen by 800,000 people in five months.” The Mirror, 1 May 2014
UK unemployment rate falls to five-year low Screen-Shot-2014-05-01-at-11.22.46-243x300

This morning’s Guardian front page told readers that there had been a “huge surge” in the number of workers employed on controversial zero-hours contracts (those where neither employer nor employee are obliged to offer or work any minimum number of hours). Its online copy of the article fleshed out this ‘surge’, claiming that numbers had “almost tripled”, while the Mirror also said that 800,000 more people were on these deals than were less than half a year ago.
As Full Fact reported yesterday, these figures represent the first time that the ONS has collected zero-hours contract data in this way, and there is therefore no way to know how large a rise there has been in their use, or even if there has been one at all. Older figures using a different methodology have recorded a smaller rise than the one reported today, but this may in part be influenced by more workers recognising that they are on a zero-hours contract in response to greater media coverage, rather than a rise in their actual use.
The ONS has also warned that these numbers refer to the number of contracts, not necessarily the number of workers.
It’s difficult to tell if zero-hours contracts are on the rise
The figures released by the ONS yesterday were gathered by surveying a sample of 5,000 businesses about their use of zero-hours contracts. It found that there were approximately 1.4 million of these contracts in use across Great Britain.
It was the first time that data had been collected in this way, and came after the ONS had reviewed its data collection methods on zero-hours contracts precisely because it thought they were being under-reported. Previously, the number of zero-hours contracts was estimated by asking employees about the terms of their employment via the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
The “huge surge” noted by the Guardian and the Mirror is found be comparing the new business survey results with the older LFS methodology, which found that in 2013 there were 583,000 people on zero-hours contracts at the end of last year.The ONS is explicit that these sort of comparisons are not substantiated by the figures:
“Estimates from employers are likely to be higher than those from individuals for a number of reasons… It is not, therefore, possible to say from the business survey whether the number of employee contracts without a guaranteed minimum number of hours of work is increasing or decreasing.”
Besides comparing data from the LFS – which was known to underestimate zero-hours contract use – with a survey designed to address this problem, there is a secondary problem with the ‘rise’ traced by the two papers.
While the LFS asked individuals about their employment conditions, the business survey that has given us these new figures asks businesses about contracts. Again, the ONS notes that counting contracts rather than people “will provide higher estimates (as one person can have more than one contract).”
We will be asking both the Guardian and Mirror to print corrections to these stories as quickly as possible.
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https://fullfact.org/economy/zero_hours_contracts_surge_rise_guardian_mirror-2033

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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 7:42 am

The Office for National Statistics has today published its first estimates of employer reported ‘non-guaranteed hours’ contracts – in other words, zero hour contracts and a few other types.
They found employers in Great Britain are using around 1.4 million employee contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours. But, they’ve warned that this is not 1.4 million people.
UK unemployment rate falls to five-year low ONS-tweet
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They also found a further 1.3 million contracts where no work was undertaken – some of which they said will probably need to be added to the estimate. They’re going to undertake more research in this area and report later in 2014.
Previously, the only estimates that have existed of zero-hours contracts have been based on the ONS’s labour force survey. But, as we’ve discussed before, increasing awareness of the contracts meant that it was difficult to ascertain whether the increasing numbers reflected increasing use of the practice, or just more people knowing that they had a zero-hours contract.
Following a consultation on how best to control for these weaknesses, the ONS felt that employers were best placed to provide accurate information about the employment terms of their workforce – leading to today’s statistics.

https://fullfact.org/live/2014/apr/first_employer_based_estimates_zero_hours_contracts-31968

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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 7:46 am

Yesterday’s Guardian front page said official statistics showed there had been a ‘huge surge’ in the number of zero-hours contracts.

UK unemployment rate falls to five-year low Screen-Shot-2014-05-01-at-11.22.46-243x300

As we covered yesterday, this is inaccurate. The statistics in question were the first of their kind, and were not comparable to the other available sources.
Today the Guardian has published a correction in their paper edition and an update and correction to the online versionof the article.
But the correction, on page 41 of the paper, will clearly not have the same reach as yesterday’s front page. With this in mind we would urge the Guardian to consider how it can match the prominence of corrections to the original inaccurate claims.
We also asked the Mirror to make the same correction yesterday, and await a response.


 https://fullfact.org/live/2014/may/guardian_correction_zero_hours_contracts-32089

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Post by Fred Thu May 15, 2014 3:46 pm

Didge Sassy never accepts any numbers that don't agree with her prejudices. The fact the economy is booming and unemployment is a record highs simply shows what dics the lefties have been on the economy.

They jus can't accept defeat.

Plan A has worked it must really stick in their craw.

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Post by Irn Bru Thu May 15, 2014 8:25 pm

So the statement that there are 2.7 million zero hours contracts is correct and it's just a case of figuring out how many of the 1.3 million that are added to the 1.7 million are actually workers or contracts,,,,,is that correct?

I think these numbers are low anyway because there ar over 300,000 people on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone so heaven knows what the total figure really is for all sectors.

These numbers are just staggering.
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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 8:26 pm

Irn Bru wrote:So the statement that there are 2.7 million zero hours contracts is correct and it's just a case of figuring out how many of the 1.3 million that are added to the 1.7 million are actually workers or contracts,,,,,is that correct?

I think these numbers are low anyway because there ar over 300,000 people on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone so heaven knows what the total figure really is for all sectors.

These numbers are just staggering.


No it is incorrect, read the points again Irn, even the Guardian admitted its error

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Post by Irn Bru Thu May 15, 2014 8:27 pm

Alright said Fred wrote:Didge Sassy never accepts any numbers that don't agree with her prejudices. The fact the economy is booming and unemployment is a record highs simply shows what dics the lefties have been on the economy.

They jus can't accept defeat.

Plan A has worked it must really stick in their craw.

Plan A hasn't worked for the reasons I have already posted on this thread. Would you like to go through them a bit at a time?
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Post by Irn Bru Thu May 15, 2014 8:30 pm

Didge wrote:
Irn Bru wrote:So the statement that there are 2.7 million zero hours contracts is correct and it's just a case of figuring out how many of the 1.3 million that are added to the 1.7 million are actually workers or contracts,,,,,is that correct?

I think these numbers are low anyway because there ar over 300,000 people on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone so heaven knows what the total figure really is for all sectors.

These numbers are just staggering.


No it is incorrect, read the points again Irn, even the Guardian admitted its error

Yes, I saw that but it's not really clear what they are correcting. Is it workers or contracts. Is that the issue?
With over 300,000 on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone then 2.7 million can't be that far off the mark whether it's contracts or actual workers.
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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 8:35 pm

Irn Bru wrote:
Didge wrote:


No it is incorrect, read the points again Irn, even the Guardian admitted its error

Yes, I saw that but it's not really clear what they are correcting. Is it workers or contracts. Is that the issue?
With over 300,000 on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone then 2.7 million can't be that far off the mark whether it's contracts or actual workers.

No it states here have been 1.4 million contracts, that could mean a contract is made for the same position many times over in the same company where there is a high turn over of staff, people actually on such contracts would constitute much lower. With the other amount this is where no work was under taken, mainly by the employee themselves.
So going off the stats given without looking into deeper shows that using a total amount is far from the reality of actual people on said contracts

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Post by Irn Bru Thu May 15, 2014 8:51 pm

Didge wrote:
Irn Bru wrote:
Didge wrote:


No it is incorrect, read the points again Irn, even the Guardian admitted its error

Yes, I saw that but it's not really clear what they are correcting. Is it workers or contracts. Is that the issue?
With over 300,000 on zero hours contracts in just the care system alone then 2.7 million can't be that far off the mark whether it's contracts or actual workers.

No it states here have been 1.4 million contracts, that could mean a contract is made for the same position many times over in the same company where there is a high turn over of staff, people actually on such contracts would constitute much lower. With the other amount this is where no work was under taken, mainly by the employee themselves.
So going off the stats given without looking into deeper shows that using a total amount is far from the reality of actual people on said contracts  

Well they don't really know whether the contracts are for the same position many times over. It could be some but they don't have the numbers of how many that may be. However the figure of 2.7 million contracts is correct whatever the answer, isn't it?

And if the number of contracts for the same position are really high then we really haven't had a million or so new jobs and it's really a lot less with one job being shared by around 3 or maybe 4 people.

This economic recovery is a dud for the many and brilliant for the few.
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Post by Irn Bru Thu May 15, 2014 8:52 pm

Meant to add. The 300,000 figure is workers - not contracts.
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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 8:54 pm

Irn Bru wrote:Meant to add. The 300,000 figure is workers - not contracts.


Not disputing this figure you have here Irn

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Post by Cass Thu May 15, 2014 9:16 pm

Can I ask a few questions?

Can someone post a link explaining zero hour contracts?

Also is this a recent development because it wasn't much in the news if at all when I left nearly 6 years ago?

Just want to get a handle on it.

Thanks x
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Post by Guest Thu May 15, 2014 9:21 pm

Cass wrote:Can I ask a few questions?

Can someone post a link explaining zero hour contracts?

Also is this a recent development because it wasn't much in the news if at all when I left nearly 6 years ago?

Just want to get a handle on it.

Thanks x

Don't think you need a link Cass, its quite simple really.   You are given a contract that states you work for the company, but if they don't require your services, they don't have to give you the hours and they don't have to pay you.   Some people don't even realise they are on them.   My grandaughter didn't until her hours started going down and when she queried it, they pointed to a little sentence on the bottom that said if she was not required they could cut her hours.   Some people don't get work for weeks, but in most cases they are not allowed to work for anyone else in case the company needs them.  It's iniquitous, and people don't know what their money is going to be from one week to another.

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Post by Guest Fri May 16, 2014 7:30 am

Irn Bru wrote:
Didge wrote:

No it states here have been 1.4 million contracts, that could mean a contract is made for the same position many times over in the same company where there is a high turn over of staff, people actually on such contracts would constitute much lower. With the other amount this is where no work was under taken, mainly by the employee themselves.
So going off the stats given without looking into deeper shows that using a total amount is far from the reality of actual people on said contracts  

Well they don't really know whether the contracts are for the same position many times over. It could be some but they don't have the numbers of how many that may be. However the figure of 2.7 million contracts is correct whatever the answer, isn't it?

And if the number of contracts for the same position are really high then we really haven't had a million or so new jobs and it's really a lot less with one job being shared by around 3 or maybe 4 people.

This economic recovery is a dud for the many and brilliant for the few.

Hi Irn

Missed this last night

Yes we know very much they are in connection with companies that have high staff turn overs, because most zero contract hours are within minimum paid worked of which I know the previous and my recent company use, now in the previous company of around 450 staff on one site, where I was a Demand planner, the factory had 20 new staff on average a month on these contracts filling the same positions that had become vacant, so how many of the same contracts have been used in just a year?
I filled filled 12 times, 12 contracts in a year
Do the maths, and you will see it may not be like this in all in fact it will higher or lower in many companies, but you cannot just ignore this fact. The fact s the amount at any given time will be between 300,000
to 500,000 at most, this will include that social carers as well, being as they are high turn over of staff also, if you do not believe me, do a job search
The economy is doing well and people are also buying in the belief it is much better, it shows people certainly think so

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