Work is the answer to so many things – outside of the most important ability to pay the bills – it gives all of us a place to be, a purpose, self respect and fulfillment. So jobs are at the top of the list of priorities and that is what LibDems in government are creating. Locally, we’ve helped treble the number of apprenticeships – vital extra help to give people in Haringey the skills that will help them, will help the community – and will help the economy.
Lynne Featherstone 
Another dodgy Lib Dem bar graph!!
This is a brilliant and very welcome campaign. Despite the economic problems, the job story is relatively positive and people need to know how much worse things could have been had the Lib Dems not been there to push the agenda.
Jake – speaking as a scientist, nothing wrong with this bar chart what-so-ever. A single scale for both sets of data. Fact remains that the last government were entirely complacent on job creation and the Lib Dem emphasis should be commended, not spat at in such a snide manner.
That’s if you really believe these jobs are being created! How many of them are on zero hours contracts?
Zero-hour contracts suck. They are mainly used in councils, in my experience (often Labour-run). They are rarely used in the private sector – outside of care work at least – which, I believe, is the main source of the new employment seen since the last election.
Dr Brown, you may be a scientist, but you’re not an economist. Employment and unemployment *rates*, not raw numbers, are what are important. And the unemployment rate has been pretty much flat since the election.
Zero Hour contracts are used extensively in the private sector as well – in care work, in catering, in teaching jobs – especially those outside of the state sector in things like TEFL teaching, in cleaning, in security, – anywhere in fact where the employer can indicate work might be seasonal or dependant upon external factors.
My daughter has applied now for well over 100 jobs, she has finally got a zero hour contract with a catering company.
I work in the university sector where zero hour contracts are commonly used when recruiting junior academics to fill in and teach for academics who are off sick, or on leave, or doing research activities.
A million zero hour contract jobs is simply a million people with their benefits ‘f**k*d up. Every time they get a few hours work, they lose their benefits, and then it takes weeks to get them back to normal again. Most people on zero hour contracts take them, like unpaid internships in the hope they will eventually be considered for a full time post. That couldn’t be further from the truth – they will not get a full time or even a part time post, it is far more advantageous for the employer to keep them forever on a zero hours contract.
Stephen – what’s your evidence to claim that the million jobs are all zero hour contacts? Stats I’ve seen from the ONS and others say otherwise, so wondering what the evidence is for that comment of yours?