How to deal with long-term unemployement?

[Machjo]

YouTube - Why Work? Welfare addiction in handout hungry UK

I'd found this video and got me thinking about things.

Seems like the UK is suffering from an epidemic of long-term unemployed. Yet there are challenges. First off, there is the issue of prejudice. In most cases, an employer will hire someone who's worked before, especially recently, over one who's never worked before or at least recently. Then there is the issue of skills, be they social or technical. Clearly a person stuck at home for a long time will lose whatever social and technical skills he may have had, and one looking for work without success is likely to eventually give up, and that of course is the beginning of the cycle.

Question is, how to get them back into the workforce without letting them starve to death too, or turn to crime?

Among solutions I can see would be:

1. Send them to school. This would help them develop social skills in the classroom environment, get them used to a daily routine (they have to wake up at a certain time, go to school, do homework, study, etc.), develop technical sills they can sell in the work market, and perhaps most importantly, develop their confidence and motivation.

2. For those who still can't fine work, introduce some kind of Peace Corps where they could be guaranteed training and a paying job. To ensure this peace corps is not exploited, we'd have to ensure that its salaries are slightly lower than the private sector's for the work they do, or at least certainly not higher than the private sector's. This way a person could get job experience onto their resume before then diving into the private sector to seek out higher-paying opportunities.

3. Negotiate more free-trade agreements, etc. with other countries so as to give people a chance to find markets abroad should they fail to find one domestically.

4. Introduce co-determination laws so as to ensure workers can negotiate fair salaries.

5. Eliminate the minimum wage so as to not price people out of the market, while still guaranteeing access to education in a trade or profession for those below the poverty bracket.

 

[TenPenny]

Yes, employers will hire someone already, or recently, working before anyone else. There are lots of people who are unemployed by choice - working is too hard, when you can get paid to do nothing. I've seen that in the people we've interviewed - the idea of thinking at work is just too hard.

What's the solution? Education, but not in the way many think. People need to learn that not every job, not every day, is exciting and rewarding.

 

[Machjo]

Yes, employers will hire someone already, or recently, working before anyone else. There are lots of people who are unemployed by choice - working is too hard, when you can get paid to do nothing. I've seen that in the people we've interviewed - the idea of thinking at work is just too hard.

What's the solution? Education, but not in the way many think. People need to learn that not every job, not every day, is exciting and rewarding.

True enough. And certainly that kind of education must go hand in hand with any social assistance, unless the person suffers from some medical condition that prevents him from working. Or if he refuses to go to school, then the government could offer him work at a salary lower than the free market to do work the community needs done. But certainly free hand outs must go out the window.