New figures show women’s employment prospects the worst for decades

James Plunkett is the secretary to the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards

With the coalition’s efforts to win back female voters in the news today, this morning’s new employment stats (pdf) couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Bleak-employment-prospects-for-women The figures on women’s employment are terrible.

First, underemployment – an area of particular importance to women in the jobs market – has reached historic highs:

• The number of people working part-time because they can’t find full-time work is up 70,000 quarter-on-quarter to 1.28 million, the highest figure since records began in 1992.

And on headline employment and claimant rates among women, the figures are also deeply worrying:

• The number of unemployed women is up 41,000 to 1.06m, the highest figure since April 1988;

• The number of women claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance is up 8,100 to 519,200, the highest figure since January 1996.

With the stats looking so gloomy, it’s encouraging to see the coalition at least waking up to the critical challenge of women’s living standards - as Resolution Foundation chief executive Gavin Kelly wrote in the New Statesman yesterday, and as the Guardian reports today.

And it’s also good to see others on the right – in particular those over on Conservative Home – are starting to talk seriously about the need for action.

We shouldn’t, of course, understate the amount of new thinking still needed from the government. (When a ‘Number 10 women’s employment summit’ makes the list of Downing Street policy solutions, you know ideas are in short supply.)

But let’s hope at least that all this renewed attention makes all three political parties raise their game. n the coming months at the Resolution Foundation we’ll be publishing new work revealing just how important women’s work will be to living standards in the years ahead, and we’ll be looking more specifically at the kinds of reform that will be needed; this isn’t going to be solved overnight.

http://twitter.com/psychoticlynx/status/113928084335505409 Kim Blake

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http://twitter.com/carllygo/status/113928118208696320 Carl Lygo

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http://twitter.com/lilcharl23/status/113928213926912001 Charlotte Hale

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http://twitter.com/unitelondon/status/113928751783489536 Unite London&Eastern

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http://twitter.com/resfoundation/status/113929624467156993 ResolutionFoundation

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http://twitter.com/therightarticle/status/113938642967339008 Michael

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http://twitter.com/lauralarue/status/113938927160795137 Laura LaRue

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http://twitter.com/jamestplunkett/status/113944059910955008 James Plunkett

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http://twitter.com/miguelescotet/status/113945747132653568 Miguel Angel Escotet

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http://twitter.com/miguelescotet/status/113945755160555520 Miguel Angel Escotet

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http://twitter.com/xraypat/status/113950848530386946 Patricia Farrington

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http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/09/david-cameron-ed-miliband-prime-ministers-questions-14-09-11/ Fees, cuts… Is this what Cameron means by “giving young people back their future”? | Left Foot Forward

[...] expense), Miliband said: “Youth unemployment is at its highest level for 19 years, women’s unemployment is at its highest level for 23 years, the highest level since the last time there was a Tory [...]
http://twitter.com/lespn/status/113983952762568704 LESPN

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http://twitter.com/londoniww/status/113997086260871168 London IWW

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Mr. Sensible

I’m afraid the Coalition’s plan to win back the women is no more or less than a silly gimmick. There are some good ideas, not least criminalizing forced marriage, but I think a good place to start would be to sack a few Tory ministers, including the Prime Minister himself for making sexist comments, and scrapping the cuts to child tax credit would also be a good place to begin.

It’s about time May and Featherstone did something about it.
http://twitter.com/sausalitospy/status/114177549424279552 Anne-Marie Mokritsky

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http://twitter.com/miguelescotet/status/114191555870466048 Miguel Angel Escotet

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[...] George Osborne chose to hide last night rather than be grilled on Newsnight following yesterday’s disastrous unemployment figures; we can but hope he tuned in anyway to listen to his shadow Ed Balls [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/09/economic-reality-begins-to-dawn-for-coalition-parties/ As conference season approaches, economic reality begins to dawn for coalition | Left Foot Forward

[...] parties. The spate of grim economic news over the summer – not least this week’s record bad unemployment figures – the eurozone crisis, the UK riots, and discontent amongst [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/11/boris-johnson-turning-back-clock-for-women-in-london/ Boris is turning back the clock for women in London | Left Foot Forward

[...] New figures show women’s employment prospects the worst for decades – James Plunkett, September 14th [...]
http://twitter.com/you_fem/status/159610604401860609 YouFem

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http://twitter.com/thepurplegooroo/status/159611613824028672 Sean Rovaldi

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