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More than a fifth of UK adults not looking for work

sean99 said:
Congratulations .... but beware the difficulty of re-entering the workforce later on. My wife (RF design engineer) stayed home with our daughter (learning disabled - childcare /after school would not have worked), and 18 years later her CV was so ancient she would have had to go back to college or take a minimum wage job. It was only via a tremendously lucky accident that I found her a software job with a former customer of mine - who trusted my judgement of her, and wanted some of my knowledge via proxy.

When she originally decided to stay home with our daughter we knew it wasn't a big financial hit at the time due to the cost of childcare, second cars, higher marginal tax rate etc. However we had not foreseen the potential huge loss of lifetime earnings due to not being able to re-enter the same career 10+ years later. Plus it put significant pressure on our marriage since I was the sole earner and the cost of living in a good school catchment was high. It's all worked out in the end, for which I'm extremely grateful, and I don't know that we could / would have done anything differently, but - beware. A 10-20 year gap on your CV can be career suicide (depending on your field).
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Thanks for the advice, I don't think it will be too much of an issue as I would not be looking to re-enter any kind of similar job that I was doing previously, and anything in my University degree is already 15+ years out of date anyway so would be starting from scratch in any new role.

Ideally by then, I might find something that I can do from home, or possibly self employed as we are fortunate to have the mortgage covered. Would possibly go back to retail in the future, I worked in a Hifi shop before my last role and was minimum wage but endless fun although possibly not as working Saturdays is not great!
 
I'm also now "economically inactive" at least WRT employment. The company I worked for actively encouraged anyone over 55 to leave by providing a financial incentive. This was taken up by the vast majority and they then started backtracking. They also found that it was hard to replace the "leavers" with all the consequences that that entails, and they were on a sticky wicket unless there was a proper period of knowledge transfer etc.

This is the first time in around 45 years that I have been without work and that includes the Thatcher years. In those days unemployment was high and re-employment opportunities were low.

But I'm as happy as larry to be "economically inactive". I am not a burden on the state as my pension and savings will get me through to 67 (if 'm still alive by then). I wouldn't go back to IT either. A zero hours contract type job might be attractive but there is no reason for me to look for that any time soon. I've had enough with the daily b****cks of being in a job anyway.
 
sean99 said:
Many companies now use automated CV / resume tracking systems, and if the format of your CV is not correct you could get dropped based on that alone. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/ats-resume-template
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As part of my redundancy my employer arranged 3 months premium consultancy with a company that reviewed my CV and ensured it was ATS compatible. So I would hope that my CV is at least not being dropped at that stage (at least not for parse issues etc).
 
ks.234 said:
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The idea that unemployment is unaffected by government policy is absurd
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I did not say it was...
 
martin_b said:
And here I am looking for work as I'm bored stupid with retirement, post grad degree ( physics) 40 odd years experience in Broadcast television and IT (its the same thing these days) primarily as an engineer then as a project manager, but because of my age (66 tomorrow) no one is interested
,
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As I think I must have posted elsewhere I was very surprised to secure an interview at 66 1/2yrs old with two year lapsed marine qualifications and secure the job.

The marine/ offshore industry has a manning issue at this time.

Regards

Richard
 
hal9001 said:
A zero hours contract type job might be attractive but there is no reason for me to look for that any time soon. I've had enough with the daily b****cks of being in a job anyway.
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My OH and I have both found switching to part-time work is a nice happy medium. The working week finishes on Wednesday and we don't have massive outgoings so downsizing to less cash/more time works for us.

The snag is that I'm studying with a view to moving to a sector where all the roles seem to be fixed-term, full time where really I'm looking for permanent, part-time. Hey ho.
 
The number of people leaving the workforce due to long term sickness is at its highest since the 1990s, a report suggests.
Adults economically inactive due to ill-health rose from 2.1m in July 2019 to a peak of 2.8m in October 2023, said the Resolution Foundation.

The rise in long-term sickness leaves the UK as the only G7 economy not to have returned to its pre-pandemic employment rate, according to the Foundation.

www.bbc.co.uk

Sick people leaving workforce at record highs

The number of people opting out of the workforce due to long term illness is at its highest since the 90s.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
employed someone this week who is just brilliant and would make a wonderful carer in a nursing home . she is only allowed to work 20 hours a week but finding very hard to find part time work . I have told her to try nursing homes directly .
 
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