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Mobilising Britain’s Missing Workforce By Steve Fothergill and John Grieve Smith It is often suggested that Britain is now near to full employment, but in fact this is far from the case. Very high numbers of people on incapacity benefits in the older industrial areas of the North, Scotland and Wales reflect “hidden unemployment” on a grand scale. Mobilising this missing workforce would benefit not only those concerned, and the areas in which they live, but also the economy as a whole. In its third term the Labour government is determined to move more people off incapacity benefits and into work. But Steve Fothergill and John Grieve Smith argue that a reliance on labour “supply side” measures such as benefit reforms will not solve the problem by itself. This will also require strong regional policies to deliver more jobs in the areas where incapacity claimants are concentrated. The numbers on incapacity benefits and the need to regenerate Britain’s older industrial areas are not two separate, unrelated problems – they are two sides of the same coin. Steve Fothergill is a Professor within the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University. John Grieve Smith is a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. “Labour to tackle hidden army on incapacity
benefit” – “Town tops sickness benefit league” – BBC News, 6 September 2005 “Benefit cuts do not create new jobs” – The
Guardian, 26 May 2005 |
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