Well it’s about time we got some good news: the Office for National statistics says that the economic situation for a good number of Brits is on the increase.
It used to be that finding a permanent job was close to impossible in the current economy, which meant that you had to sometimes turn to freelancing or working as an umbrella company contractor out of necessity. Unemployment figures have been persistently high in the years following the credit crunch and resulting recession, but now the ONS says things are finally beginning to turn around – and I can only hope that this trend continues!
The ONS reported that employment figures grew ever higher between November 2013 and January of this year. There were 24,000 Brits who went back to work over this period of time, while the number of folks who were reported as unemployed dropped by around 5,000, indicating very positive growth towards putting people back to work in jobs that will pay the bills and keep the cupboards full, though the private sector wasn’t much of a help in this situation: the government shed a massive 22,000 jobs from September 2012 to January 2013, forcing the private sector to pick up the slack by hiring an additional 46,000 Brits.
Yes, the overall increase is rather modest, but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t welcome the change as possibly good news for the coming months. Most economic experts agree with me, including the British Chambers of Commerce’s chief economist, David Kern – he said that the economy here at home is still leaps and bounds ahead of many others in the eurozone and around the globe, which means we’re in a rather positive position indeed.
However, there are still some serious problems – chief amongst them being that pay rates are still rather low. Inflation is still running rampant over Brits’ finances, and industry experts urge anyone, permanent worker and umbrella company contractor alike, to do their level best to negotiate the most competitive pay rates they possibly can in order to stop that terrible creeping doom of watching your money lose its worth slowly but inexorably over time.
This is of course easier said than done if you ask me; there’s not so many positions out there that you can pick and choose, especially if you’ve got kids and a mortgage. Still, some workers may be able to leverage their expertise more than others, especially if they’re in the information technology field – IT contractors are so in demand that you can more or less write your own ticket!
