Leader: Many are grateful to be earning with 2,000 jobs lost
Wednesday 21st December 2011, 12:30PM GMT.
Acclaimed writer Oscar Wilde famously said: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
And, as grim unemployment statistics continue to pile up across Shropshire, the spectre of joblessness is certainly at the forefront of many people’s minds as they battle to pay their mortgages and survive a credit crunch Christmas.
Pensions may be under threat, and pay rises may be paltry compared with the rate of inflation, but many workers are merely grateful to be bringing home a salary at all, during this most expensive time of year.
Today, it emerged that more than 2,000 jobs have been lost in Shropshire over the past 12 months.
It is easy to simply trot this number off the tongue without pausing to consider what it actually means.
But this is 2,000 families who will not be splashing the cash in the January sales; 2,000 families who cannot afford to pay for home improvements, holidays, or a new wardrobe; and 2,000 families who will be worried about burning up too much gas and electricity as temperatures fall.
It is little wonder that we also hear today how new house building is at an all-time low – people either cannot afford to move, or are too frightened to take the plunge.
There is another telling figure buried in today’s employment report. More and more Shropshire people are now job sharing, or working part-time.
This has been a trend for several years, but suggests that the “real” number of people who have lost a full-time job in the past year is probably significantly higher than even today’s statistics suggest.
Is it any wonder people are working increasingly long hours as they strive to protect what they have?
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I’m sure that people reading this article, who have either lost their job or are worried that they might, will appreciate the delicious irony of the sponsored link at the bottom of the page:
“Should you be buying stocks right now? If you have a £250,000 portfolio…..”
How about a charitable appeal on behalf of the British Bankers’ Benevolent Fund?
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In other news, it is almost Christmas and the temperature is a lot colder than it was back in June. By next June it will be warmer again, and people won’t need to wear their big warm coats.
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The best way to resent your job is to imagine yourself lounging around without one.
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don’t forget poor people,you need to spare some cash for..
the queens boat tour & police to cover her.
david cam’morons holidays & friends spendings.
£25 billion to the unelected eu thats sinking.
bankers payrises.
etc to the rest the tax dodging toff’s for whome it’s rip off the poor/middleclass as usual.
50+ million people in the uk,& we always end up with some useless muppet’s that run the country into the ground,that blame their predecessor for why they do a poor job.
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Well my view is i spent 19 years doing a job i hated but it paid the bills and my yearly hols etc. I then moved on and improved my lot as many do, the point is you can get stuck in a rut and moan about it, but as i was in what was classed as a below national average wage and carried little debt.
I had more of a choice than some who worked at the same place as me one on 40 k in a job they had hated for years carrying rather a lot more debt and dreaming of the day they would be offered a generous redundancy package to go or a lottery win both pure fantasy.
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We did’nt know you where Master of the Hounds for 19 years!
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