Where’s the jobs plan?

SOME things you can’t predict. Others you can. A massive rise in unemployment as the coronavirus catastrophe hits is one of the things we know is coming. After all, jobs are already going fast and that’s before the end of the furlough scheme this autumn.

So it’s shocking how little is being done to prepare for this. At the start of lockdown the Government was nimble and creative, keeping businesses alive and people in work. But we don’t hear as much now from the Chancellor, who seems to have cut back on his artful photo opportunities. The Prime Minister has gone to Herefordshire today to be seen wearing a hard hat on a construction site, but that isn’t going to help anyone.

Where’s the policy substance? Where’s the creativity to make talk of apprenticeships for every young person who wants one a reality? What’s being done to support more part-time working until economic demand returns? Why don’t we support a new generation of volunteering, to keep people occupied if jobs can’t be found? The test of a government is how it copes with national disaster. This is a test the Prime Minister cannot afford to fail.