| A shorter working week is set to become the new norm, according to a report out this week from nef (the new economics foundation), the UK’s leading independent think tank. |
| the study, 21
hours, forecasts a
major shift in the length of the formal working week as a consequence of dealing
with key economic, social and environmental problems. And this can be seen as a
positive opportunity, say the researchers, rather than a threat.
|
According to nef, there are several forces pushing us
towards a shorter working week: lasting damage to the economy caused by the
banking crisis, an increasingly divided society with too much over-work
alongside too much unemployment, and an urgent need for deep cuts in
environmentally damaging over-consumption. These combine with a growing interest
in people spending more time producing and delivering a share of their own goods
and services – from co-produced care and neighbourhood-based activities, to
food, clothing and other necessities. Read more at neweconomics.org |
Blurring the line between being employed and unemployed is good. The thing is to be busy doing useful things. People can probably do more useful things, if they are unemployed, than employed, working to make a profit for someone else. | More than eight million people of working age - more than a fifth of the total
- are not in paid employment, |
| The number claiming employment-related benefits rose 23,500 to 1.64 million in January |
In all, 21.3 per cent of working-age adults are now “economically inactive”, a
category that includes students, the long-term sick, unpaid carers and those
who retire early.
|
Much of the in increase came from people opting to study instead of working or
seeking work.
|
However, 78,000 of the inactive were recorded as “discouraged” workers, people
who have simply given up because they do not believe there are any jobs
available.
|
| A total of 5.75
million inactive people do not want a job. |
The number claiming employment-related benefits rose 23,500 to 1.64 million in
January, the highest since April 1997.
|
Earlier this week, an ONS study suggested that as many as 2.8 million workers
are “underemployed,” either not working as many hours as they want or doing
jobs below the level of their qualifications.
Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk |
The object is not to do more in the future, but to do less. People would then have more time to look after each other and the natural world which is surely what life should be all about, rather than selfish consumption.
Forces pushing the UK towards a shorter working week included lasting damage
to the economy caused by the banking crisis, an increasingly divided society
with too much overwork alongside too much unemployment and an urgent need
for deep cuts in environmentally damaging over-consumption.
|
“So many of us live to work, work to earn, and earn to consume, and our
consumption habits are squandering the earth’s natural resources”, said Anna
Coote, co-author of the report, 21 Hours.
|
| The last two years revealed many to
be consuming well beyond our economic means and beyond the limits of the
natural environment, yet in ways that also fail to improve our wellbeing.
|
| Our research shows that
moving to a shorter working week could be the only way left untried to
square this seemingly impossible circle. A cultural shift will throw up real
challenges, but there could also be massive benefits for our economy, our
quality of life and our planet. After all, hands up who wouldn’t like a four
day weekend?”
Read more at www.independent.co.uk |
What you’re not hearing from the politicians and the talking heads is that the joblessness and underemployment in America’s low-income households rival their heights in the Great Depression of the 1930s — and in some instances are worse. The same holds true for some categories of blue-collar workers. Anyone who thinks this devastating problem is going away soon, or that the economy can be put back on track without addressing it, is deluded. |
| There has been talk about income inequality over the past several years, but what is happening now is catastrophic. |
| the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less |
| was a staggering 30.8 percent. That’s more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression. |
The next lowest group, with incomes of $12,500 to $20,000, had an unemployment rate of 19.1 percent. |
What is disturbing is that the outlook for wages and incomes over the short and long term looks bleak even when the recovery is in full swing. The pay rewards for work have been severely lacking for a majority of workers over the past three decades. Whether the measure is wages, earnings, or total compensation, the inflation-adjusted pay narrative remains the same: Workers have seen their inflation-adjusted pay go up only a little during the past four business cycle expansions while most of the gains have been captured by the top 10% to 15% of workers. A major lesson of the Great Recession is how financially vulnerable workers are with jobs and incomes less secure than ever. “It isn’t a healthy economy,” says Paul Osterman, professor of human resources and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “There is a broad sense that it’s a precarious labor market.” |
When will all “discretionary” spending implode? Homelessness has become a tag term, as of now. There is going to be a lot more about this issue as the next phase of the crisis unfolds. | 23% of U.S. homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to |
| They possess, in the vivid lingo of the housing industry, “underwater mortgages.” |
| home-loan delinquencies and home repossessions are now at record highs. |
| not just homeowners but renters are now being swept up in the housing crisis as landlords of apartment buildings in trouble let upkeep go while maintenance problems soar. |
| La Namibie est un des pays les plus pauvres du monde |
C’est l’objectif du projet de revenu citoyen défendu bec et ongles par la BIG Coalition.
Selon ce projet, chaque Namibien sans exception aurait droit à une allocation de cent dollars namibiens (environ dix euros) par mois depuis sa naissance jusqu’à sa pension |
| Britain’s army of unemployed number almost 2.5 million, the highest in almost 15 years, with almost one million younger people out of work. |
The unemployment rate stands at 7.8 per cent, up from 5.4 per cent
this time last year, or around 750,000 more out of work.
A more worrying trend is the emergence of an increasingly large group of the
hidden unemployed – totalling more than 1.6 million – who are being pushed
into taking shorter hours, temping or going into part-time work in an
attempt to avoid the dole queues. |
| indicated a
growing number of what might be dubbed the “shadow unemployed,”
backing anecdotal evidence that the UK’s liberalised labour market has both
helped keep the official jobless totals low, while pushing many into a
twilight world between traditional jobs and casual, insecure and poorly paid
work. Pay rises in this recession, for example, are much lower than in
previous ones, |
The gap between what men and women are paid is starting to widen again after a decade of movement in the direction of equality, the Women and Work Commission said yesterday. |
The thinktank, set up in 2004, highlighted the pay divide in a follow-up report on workplace discrimination. It concluded that although ministers had made good progress, they had failed to achieve “fundamental change”. |
The commission identified two key areas where there had been no significant advance: tackling gender stereotyping among children under 14, and promoting work/life balance in the private sector. |
Women are paid 22.6% an hour less than men, according to the figures for median earnings, which take into account full-time and part-time work, it said. “Although this has fallen from 27.5% over the last 10 years … progress is stalling. The number has even risen slightly since 2007, when it was 21.9%. This is also the case for the full-time gender pay gap, which stood at 12.5% in 2007 but is now 12.8%.” Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
A record two-thirds of manufacturing companies are freezing workers’ pay, according to the latest survey from the Engineering Employers’ Federation. |
The EEF pay report, which was launched in 1987, found that a small number of companies were cutting employees’ pay in response to the recession. |
The survey adds to growing evidence that pay rises are being squeezed closer to zero across many parts of the economy although that has not prevented a record rise in unemployment. |
The EEF said the average pay settlement in the manufacturing sector fell to just 0.7% in the second quarter of this year, down from the revised figure of 0.9% for the previous three months to the end of May. |
As the monthly settlement levels for May and June were both below 0.5%, it is likely that average settlement levels in manufacturing will continue to fall further in the near future. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
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New Economics - Shorter working week soon inevitable
