Fast forward to the 2020s and for many those issues of job insecurity and risk of unemployment has not gone away. The difference now is the claim that there are jobs aplenty for anyone who wants one. Of course, this analysis fails to take into account the issues of under-employment, the mismatch of skills to the jobs market and the flagrant attempts by employers to avoid obligations to their workers; instead, the gig economy is alive and kicking without any semblance of contractual obligations to workers.
"The paltry 1.75% pay increase for local government was highly predictable. A lesson not yet learned is that rhetoric within the walls of UNISON HQ and the parallel universe of the ultra left will not solve the pay crisis"
The results of these changes can now be seen in the volume of worker movements, exacerbated by the pandemic, many are leaping to the next job seeking better pay to compensate for their otherwise poor conditions of employment. This can only be described as a jobs crisis. But it is not limited to the private sector.
Within the public sector it looks like a pay ‘rise’ of 1.75% will land on council workers. This is against the context of a reported shortage of around 170,000 – 190,000 care workers, with 105,000 in England alone.
