14 Jul 2011

Jobs crisis for the ‘disappearing middle’

You hear a lot about the “squeezed middle”, a phrase Ed Miliband borrowed from Bill Clinton. But what if the problem is more fundamental than that? What if we are looking at not a “squeezed middle” but a “disappearing middle”?

Jobs that were the bedrock of post-war economic progress for millions – administrative office jobs, skilled factory work – are vaporising.

New research from the Work Foundation, drilling into the job types that are disappearing, will add to alarm about this. It confirms a phenomenon UK economists have been deeply worried about and shows how the recession has accelerated the process.

Changing jobs graphicIf you have a secretarial, administrative, machine operative job and you lose it, you could find it very hard indeed to find a matching alternative. You could be months looking and then, as money gets tight, you may find yourself going for something much less well paid with no prospects.

Economists call it “bumping down” and the numbers who’ve done just that in recent years are striking. You find former office workers now working cleaning houses, in care, childcare or beautician work. You find skilled factory workers now employed as cleaners.

They used to have jobs that gave them sick pay, paid holiday, double the salary and prospects of promotion…but no more. They used to tell their neighbours what they did for a living…some now talk of sneaking out and not wanting to admit they’re cleaning or caring down the road.

In Guildford, we visited a cleaning agency with around 100 cleaners on its books. Leafing through the applicants you see former health and safety officers, executive personal assistants, planning office staff … now cleaning their neighbours’ houses for money.

The cleaning agency’s founder said she is inundated by applications and they come from the sort of people she’d have expected to having their own houses cleaned while they were out at work.

This could all have enormous implications for social mobility, economic growth and maybe for our politics too. That’s what Gavin Kelly of the Resolution Foundation thinks. He worked for Tony Blair in Number 10 and was Gordon Brown’s Deputy Chief of Staff there too. He says that, for years, governments looked at growth rates and the worst off and thought if they had both of them going in the right direction everything else would fall into place.

The disappearing middle “wasn’t on the radar” and could have serious consequences for our politics if, US Tea Party-style, there is anger out there and it gets directed at politicians.

For the full report, see Channel 4 News tonight at 7pm.

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