Employment and Unemployment

Employment

• 76% of people who are employed work in the tertiary sector.

• 22% work in the secondary sector.

• 2% work in the primary sector.

• People who are employed are much less likely to be in poverty than the unemployed.

Unemployment In Britain

• Unemployment causes social exclusions from the workplace such as not meeting friends.

•75% of people who are unemployed are living in poverty in Scotland (this is around 90,000 people).

• Some divide society into the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. The deserving poor are the ones who have problems through no fault of there own (such as children, the elderly, or disabled) and the undeserving poor are those who are fit to work but don’t (such as drug addicts).

Poverty

Low income employment is a major cause of poverty because:

• People leave school without education or skills and can immediately enter low paid jobs.

• The lowest paid job in the UK is retail cashiers and checkout operators.

Part Time Work and Poverty

About a quarter of the UK workforce worked part time in 2006. Part time work can cause poverty because:

• On average, part time workers earn considerably less than those working full time.

• The bottom 10% of the part time workforce earned less than 43 pounds per week.

Child Poverty and Employment

• People with children are more likely to be in poverty, because they have to spend more on their children and they can find it harder to work.

• Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to end up in poverty themselves. This is because they may see unemployment as the norm.

Elderly People and Poverty

• People who are older than retirement age are likely to be in poverty. Pensioner couples make up about 17% of the low income earners in Britain.

• Single pensioners make up about 21% of low income earners.

• This means that in total, pensioners make up a huge 38% of the low income earners in the UK.

• Pensioners can have a very low income due to a lack of savings and a low pension from the government.