Unemployment in England

[shaelheart]

The news story below shows a deepening crisis in England.

The jobs are temporary, at basic wages, and some involve cleaning up after zoo animals. But Britain is suffering a recession, so when the help-wanted ads appeared, about 3,000 people applied, including laid-off executives and company bosses. In fact, Twycross Zoo was overwhelmed by job hunters, who caused a five-mile (eight-kilometer) traffic jam when they all arrived for Saturday's recruitment day, said spokeswoman Kim Riley.

- Yahoo News

 

[CrazyTech]

It cant get any worse ------- CAN IT!!!!

Historically speaking, it can get a hell of a lot worse. We're nowhere near the Great Depression levels here in the US, where unemployment was 25% (1 of every 4 workers was unemployed). We've yet (as a nation) to cross even the 10% marker. I think even worst case scenarios will be about 15%, and I personally think it will top out at 12-14%. Remember that it is also a lag indicator.

The GD foreclosure rate was also significantly higher; I cannot find exact reliable figures, but I've heard it several times that somewhere around 50% of homes actually defaulted on loans around that time. This is from the Bank of St. Louis FR:

At its worst, in 1933, some 1,000 home loans were foreclosed every day (Fifth Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, 1937, p. 4)… The foreclosure rate increased continuously from 1926 to 1933, then declined slowly over the remainder of the period. The foreclosure rate exceeded 1 percent (10 per 1,000 mortgages) in each year from 1931 to 1935 and did not fall below the rate for the year 1926 until 1941….

A broader measure of home mortgage distress is the rate of mortgages with past due payments. Comprehensive data on mortgage delinquency rates do not exist for the 1930s. However, a study of 22 cities by the Department of Commerce found that, as of January 1, 1934, 43.8 percent of urban, owner-occupied homes on which there was a first mortgage were in default. The study also found that among delinquent loans, the average time that they had been delinquent was 15 months. Among homes with a second or third mortgage, 54.4 percent were in default and the average time of delinquency was 18 months. Thus, at the beginning of 1934, approximately one-half of urban houses with an outstanding mortgage were in default (Bridewell, 1938, p. 172). For comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2007, 3.6 percent of all U.S. residential mortgages and 20.4 percent of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages had been delinquent for at least 90 days.

All of this data, of course, doesn't discuss the Panic of 1873, which was probably far, far worse.

IMHO (and I will stress this as an educated adult that is a business minor with strong focus on Economic courses as of late), the real problem will be the legislation and the aftermath of this. It's business 101 that an economy booms and busts.

 

[bbrez1]

I agree that if you are willing to do anything you can get a job.

I think us IT's don't need to worry about finding a job, there will always be jobs for us unless the whole world runs out of electricity lol

 

[holyroller]

I think us IT's don't need to worry about finding a job, there will always be jobs for us unless the whole world runs out of electricity lol

I really depends what you do, I remember after 9/11 lots of companies in the UK cut their IT Contracting staff down in huge numbers which made getting another job near impossible. Many people, including myself, took huge paycuts. My salary dropped 75%, but at the time I had no choice. I remember it use to be just a few people per job/interview, but after these big layoffs you were competing against hundreds of other applicants.