Whilst I agree with much of that brb, I do feel it is a slight generalisation. When Woolies went, the Job Centre had 24,000 people enter, many highly qualified technicians, long serving managers and people with HNDs and the like. It was immediately after Christmas, not the busiest time of year for recruitment! Many were lucky to get jobs elsewhere with the companies like Icelands that took over the stores. Some were poached by the big supermarkets as Woolies staff were regarded within the sector as highly trained. How many others got on I don't know but there were a whole range of skills available then and they really have no choice to use it when something like that happens so quickly.
Whether the jobs that fitted their criteria were there I doubt and most of the time it did seem full of junkies who had been there for years but I certainly wouldn't write off one means of potentially finding a missing piece or, from the side of the fence, finding a job desperately needed.
As an aside, I had a 4 week window in which to start again otherwise incur costly childcare costs. Not wanting to risk out finances (and with saving £300 a month not getting to work) I stayed at home with the children. But when I went to the Job Centre there were jobs for delivery drivers, it would be an OK stop gap whilst I looked for something more suitable. There were hundreds of these jobs listed in every town and was part of the "20,000" jobs listed as being available. When I rang, they said there was nothing in my immediate area. I GOT A CALL LAST WEEK OFFERING ONE ALMOST 4 YEARS LATER!!!! How many jobs are "available" that no-one can have as it seriously skews the people out of work figures!