Brown's job vacancies are dwindling
Fraser Nelson 4:05pmIn PMQs today Gordon Brown said there are 500,000 vacancies in the economy - a revision from his recent 600,000 claim. But this morning's unemployment data show that even this is out of date. The number of vacancies is collapsing way below the half-million mark - so these British jobs are becoming even more scarce. The trajectory of unemployment so far the sharpest since the war. Monthly data for the Great Depression just doesn't exist, so Balls may be right after all. Here is the graph, from Citi, showing the full horror story:
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Tiberius
February 11th, 2009 4:41pm Report this commentPerhaps next time a mobile goes off during one of his press conferences, Brown will be tempted to say, "is that another 100,000 off the vacancy list?"
George Laird
February 11th, 2009 5:38pm Report this commentDear All
It seems perfectly clear that Gordon Brown has flung in the towel now.
The only course of action is a General Election and a hung Parliament.
At PMQ's; he was like a man in denial, out of touch and out of his depth.
His Chancellorship was "stunning" because he did nothing but in this "1930's" depression; he is so much like driftwood.
Finally, after plotting for so long to become PM; he has learned one thing; he is no leader.
It is time for Labour to start thinking about a leadership contest.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Ian C
February 11th, 2009 5:52pm Report this commentBrown's Biography title
"British redundancy for foreign workers"!
Nick Kaplan
February 11th, 2009 7:02pm Report this comment“Monthly data for the Great Depression just doesn't exist”
Fraser it’s not entirely true that there is no monthly data for unemployment after the great depression. Research by Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway published in their book ‘Out of Work’ follows monthly unemployment statistics after the Wall Street crash. This research produced some very interesting results, for example it showed that unemployed was at only 6.3% in June 1930 almost a year after the crash. It was only when the Smoot-Hawley tariffs act was passed that same month that unemployment began to sky-rocket reaching double digits 5 months later. When FDR began to intervene to end the depression unemployment increased still further eventually exceeding 20%, unemployment did not fall below 20% until 1935 (where it dropped to about 19.3%) showing that Roosevelt’s stimulus had, at best, a negligible effect.
I guess you meant monthly data for the UK, and I know of nothing on this front, but it is surely reasonable to expect that similar data is true for the UK?
HFC
February 11th, 2009 7:20pm Report this comment#Ian C - whatever the title, it's sure to be a 'whodunnit'. It won't be the author.
Silent Hunter
February 11th, 2009 10:54pm Report this commentOh Dear!
What with all these job vacancies disappearing faster than a Labour Bounce..............what WILL Jacqui Smith do when she and her well paid house husband finally get the sack?
Interesting how the mainstream media have been uncharacteristically quiet about this little 'episode' of New Labour Sleaze & Corruption.
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