by Poshgill » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:30 am
Rob, couple of things mate. Firstly you are assuming that people that look for work in Job Centres have the skills you are looking for. There is a degree of naivety there. The majority of people seeking work at these places are unskilled workers that would be good, factory, warehouse or driving staff. These obviously would not have the skill set that you require for your position. There are also a lot of trades people that use the Job Centre, so obviously the pool that you are recruiting from. Also there are strict rules (that need looking at) about unemployed people going into work. Was you offering a salary for a 40 hour week with OTE? If not, then no unemployed person would touch it. Any unemployed person working more than 16 hours a week, even in voluntary work, faces benefit cuts as they are deemed to be not in a position where they are actively seeking employment (and for all those that moan that unemployed people don't do anything, that is the reason why.)
Of course there are shops seeking staff. Plenty of them at the moment. How many will retain those staff after Christmas? And that is another reason why unemployed people won't take casual work and that is because the system prohibits people from doing so. Once a temp job comes to an end people can wait weeks for their benefits to come through and in some cases, they lose weeks of benefit. Do you honestly expect a married person with responsibilities to take a job for 5 weeks on minimum wage and then lose a couple of weeks benefit?
My wife left her current employment recently (through her choice I must say) and within 4 weeks, she got 2 jobs. One as a Christmas casual in the Post Office and in January she starts in the Civil Service. Not once did she go to the job centre. My advice to you if you are looking for staff is to go to a Recruitment Agency. (Not a Staff Agency) Of course it costs, but they will do all the advertising, sifting of CV's and interviewing and only put people through that they feel are good enough for the role.
BTW, I don't criticise Cameron for being an Etonian, I criticise him for being totally out of touch with the everyday person in the street.