How do you make it hard to find a job?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 5, 2013 at 13:58

The trouble is that job centres are an example of a government run monopoly that only deals with the crap end of the market. The NHS will be like this one day. I notice that Anthony Pepe were using Twitter to look for a part time administrator in their Harringay office yesterday. This is much harder than you would think.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gill on December 5, 2013 at 14:48

I used to sign on. But instead I have 4 p/t casual jobs. Not ideal and very low rates of pay. Whilst I was signing on I was not offered any jobs or guidance, they relied on me to apply myself and just keep a record of my job search.

One of the places I work at would rather pay for advertising than use the local Newham JC as the experience they have had in the past is that anyone is sent for consideration even though they do not have even the 'desirable' - and this is for a Visitor Service Assistant, needing a little customer care and a bit of cash handling.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Betty Careless on December 5, 2013 at 15:06

Working in the voluntary sector I can report that we're having the same experience as the employer in the blog only with volunteers.  Charities are being inundated with enquiries from people who, when you follow up with them, have no actual interest in volunteering with you, and often can't even remember making the enquiry.

 One organisation I know did a breakdown of volunteer enquiries and reckoned that 85% of people enquiring about volunteering were people who been told to do so by the Job Centre, and had no intention of actually doing it.  

We are wasting precious resources chasing up these people so that the Job Centre and firms running the welfare to work schemes can tick boxes.  Volunteering can be a brilliant thing to do if you are unemployed - but the person has to be willing and able to be there otherwise its going to drain an organisation's resources, not add to them

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sarah on December 6, 2013 at 13:40

Oh dear, it just lost all but the first two words of my reply!

In short - how things change!  I had to go off the JSA because my volunteering meant I wasn't "availabe for work".  This was several years ago at the height of the recession.

I borrowed money from my parents until the volunteering led to paid work (I was changing career and needed to build experience, as the recession put paid to my previous career).

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Betty Careless on December 6, 2013 at 17:12

I am sorry to say Sarah that if you had appealed you probably would have been able to stay on JSA AND volunteer. The job centre has always had a very strange attitude to volunteering and for some reason a myth grew up amongst its frontline staff that volunteering wasn't allowed, or was only allowed for 16 hours a week.  Actually the JSA rules say (and have always said since day one) that people can volunteer for as many hours as they want as long as they are still firing off enough job applications and attending interviews.  There's even a lovely leaflet the job centre head office made explaining just that (I know because I was one of the voluntary sector peeps called in to advise on writing it) - unfortunately it never got distributed to any of their staff on the ground, and so most advisors continued wrongly told people their benefits would be cut if they volunteered.  As you say ironic that they are now trying to force everyone into volunteering whether they want to/its right for them/ its right for the volunteer involving organisation or not.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Abi on December 5, 2013 at 15:27

I've gone self employed on a negligible income rather than be put in this position - fortunately I have a partner in a highly-paid job supporting me, and I'm optimistic that this situation will be temporary. But when I did briefly look into the option of taking JSA it struck me that all I'd be doing is wasting time I could be spending on legitimate job-seeking due to having to go to a job centre that would almost certainly offer no appropriate help. It's crazy really - I thought that JSA was there to help people through exactly this type of temporary gap in earnings. But from everyone who's been there recently, it seems like it's worse than scraping together a pittance of one's own instead. 

Of course, I'm playing into the government's hands by not appearing as a statistic of unemployment - even though I would not be able to live on my current wage unsupported. My next door neighbour is in exactly the same position. 

• ▶ Reply