Going to my local Job-Centre+ yesterday, the queue was half way down the street. The longest I have seen it in a long time. I have employment issues due to epilepsy which causes problems with employers and travels, together with areas in which I can work.

Whilst walking down the High Street to the Job Centre the following original big name stores were vacant possession. Woolworths, Anglia Television, Allders. Three small, but longstanding department stores, one of which had been running for over 120 years, before it closed. A number of small retail outlets in what was once a fully populated shopping mall.

On the employment front, we have lost three major manufactuers, with the third now operating at 15% or its capacity of 25 years ago. Two of those employers operated 24 hours on a four shift, 7 day basis. A lot of staff for a medium size town, (although technically a City as we have a small Cathederal).

In fact the volume of commuter traffic to London has become so great and concentrated, their are occasions when the public have to be held in the ticket hall, to prevent people being pushed on the tracks. The down-line platform has now been made in to a two-way operation, with one 12 coach train comming up empty from a siding.
That train is full, with people standing before it has left the platform.

I am sure that there are many towns on the periphory of large City Centres are seeing the same trend. So much for an improving unemployment position, and rising ecconomic climate.

Even in my job as a debt collector, I am finding it difficult to find work (yes, honestly) because the banks are making firms Bankrupt and placing them in to Liquidation so fast, the COurts can’t keep up with the applications. A simple hearing date can now take up to 3 months to be set down. Most of the telephone collections work has gone overseas, to places where they have no understanding of our law, or procedures. And of course speaking English as a forein language. Indeed I have been told by people who I have met in pubs that the Credit Card Companies particularly have now moved to totally automated collections, where the telephone number of the debtor is automatically dialed, and a computer generated voice asks the Debtor to return the call of the Creditor.

In the latter case, that is cheeky, because it means the Debtor is effectively paying for the cost of work which should be at the cost of the Creditor. Of course the irony there is that the person who is likely to be already in financial difficulties, may not have enough Credit on their phone to return the call!

It seems that the entire Country has forgotten how to talk to eachother, the humans who you do get to talk to are reading from a cue card, and probably not know a debit from a credit if it smacked them in the face.

Many educated people no longer see a future in this Country, as are an increasing number of skilled and semi-skilled people. We have become a nation of button pushers.

WOuld te last person to leave the UK, please turn out the lights.

Tim – I am thinking it through (thanks for the advice). My point was that in early 2009 all the indicators were going in the wrong direction, very quickly, whereas now they are all either stable, slightly improving or slightly deteriorating. I infer from that that the labour market is in a better place than it was (ie current performance is better). Clearly the situation remains very uncertain – both because unemployment remains high and the trends are volatile.