In article ws.net,
:::Jerry:::: wrote:
Getting back to something close to uk.d.i.y. I worked at finding jobs for
people in the building industry during the 70s and managed a close-on
100% success rate to get joiners, brickies, plasterers, H&V Engineers, &c
in work at the end of a six-moth training course. Employment prospects
never got back to that in the 80s and 90s - and house prices didn't go
down because that 'over-employment' had disappeared.

'Finding jobs', were they real jobs or were they created to keep people off
the dole?

I'm very glad you asked that question. I was finding them *real* jobs in
industry and - in most cases - with a small element of continued training over
the following 6 months.

However: I also worked with those who were given 'training/work' during the
Thatcher years and that was a totally different matter where (one real example
that I dealt with myself) a group of six 20-somethings were removed from the
unemployment statistics by forming a 'band'. They had to show that they were
gainfully self-employed and had capital. Each of them showed a photocopy of a
cheque for 1000 GBP from the mother of one of them. The same photocopy for all
six of them. The cheque was never cashed and there never was 1000 GBP in her
account anyway. The group got together once. On the strength of that they were
not required to sign-on or look for work, were each paid a top-up support
income to get their 'business' going (the sum was more than the unemployment
benefit would have been for each of them) - but most importantly were taken
off the unemployment register for a year. I dealt with them at the end of the
year.

When I say that the Thatcher unemployment statistics were fraudulent, I know
what I'm talking about.

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