In the three months to December, unemployment fell by 3,000. Whilst having fallen 7,000 in the three months to November. So that’s less than a tiny fall, whilst 2.46 million remain on the dole, and 8.08 million are economically inactive – and a rise in long-term unemployment of 37,000 to 663,000.
As I said last time, this “fall” in unemploment by no means demonstrates a recovery. The labour market is still very weak. and Labour haven’t helped it. In fact, they’re expecting unemployment to rise again. The most positive thing that …

This probably won’t be a very popular thing to say, but I think that the idea of removing the compulsary retirement age (the age at which an employer can make an employee resign) is wrong. At least, it’s wrong right now.
At a time when there are nearly a million under-24s out of work – a fifth of them – we should be encouraging and enabling them to get jobs. Otherwise we’re going to end up with a massive part of a generation with no experience of work, no skills, and …

What would be a “slap in the face“?
a) A pay freeze for local authority workers
Unison say:

The decision to cut our members’ pay without negotiation is a slap in the face for hard-working council employees who have kept local communities together through the financial crisis.

or
b) An inflation-busting 2.5% pay rise for local authority workers paid for out of our council taxes (inevitably either through a tax rise or decreased services)
The Local Government Employers say:

Councils are facing a perfect storm of falling revenues and increasing demand for services.
Up and down the country, …

Unemployment over the past three months is down. By 7,000. To 2.46 million. Wow what a difference that made!
The number of those on the dole fell by a greater number of 15,200, to 161 million – rather offset by the more than 8 million who aren’t even bothering to look for work any more, the highest number ever. And even that decrease is subject to clarification:

As has been the pattern for months, the figures are being driven by women finding part-time jobs while men, predominantly, are losing full-time ones.

To put …

Apparently it’s good for your health.

Telling your boss what you think of them is said to be good for your health, according to research.
Psychologists argued that giving managers feedback was more likely to make employees ”happy, healthy and stress-free”.
Research presented at the British Psychological Society’s occupational psychology conference in Brighton found that the relationship between staff and line managers was the most commonly reported cause of stress in the workplace. (Telegraph)

Probably bad for your career though…

Just two months ago, public sector workers were in uproar over plans to freeze their pay announced by both Labour and the Conservatives. I had little sympathy for them then, and even less now.
You see, I work in the private sector and this year my pay has been frozen and my (already minimal) bonus shrunk. So why should people who work in the public sector and thus get insulated from the recession, alongside their standard perks of job security and gold-plated pensions?! We in the public sector and paying for …

The Royal Mail has hired 30,000 temps to replace the striking postmen and clear some of the backlog which, predictably, the CWU has condemned as “a stupid move”.
Like they can talk.
Striking is the most stupid move they could have made. It hasn’t helped their workers, and will just condemn them in the long term. Striking will only ensure that the Royal Mail is abandoned by businesses and individuals as other mail providers or technologies are used.
The simple fact of the matter is that if the CWU wants its members to …

Are the parties “playing politics” with public sector workers pay by saying that they will freeze it? All they are doing is trying to save the entire country from collapsing under the crippling weight of paying their salaries.
As much as they obviously slike it – and are perfectly entitled to do so – their jobs have been thus far pretty much entirely insulated from the ongoing recession, unlike private sector workers.
Why should public sector workers get everything their way? They get a far higher level of job security, gold-plated pensions, …

We live in a democracy – or at least we’re supposed to. So why is a man being sacked from his job for participating in it? Mark France, a civil servant in DWP (more accurately, an admin officer in a job center) was fired for “gross misconduct” for breaking its code of conduct by

speaking about politics on live national television, campaigning for signatures, making statements to the media, standing as an independent candidate in local elections without permission, and making comments on a politics website.

WTF? He may work for the …

… then I wish all of our politicians were workshy bastards!

Alex Salmond was last night accused of being a “work-shy” First Minister by his Labour rivals because his SNP Government had only passed seven pieces of legislation since coming to power in May 2007…
The minority SNP Government has passed two budget bills, legislation for the abolition of bridge tolls, a Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act, a graduate endowment abolition act, a judiciary and courts act and a public health act. (Scotland on Sunday)

And in comparison with them, the Labour government at …