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IT IS perfectly feasible for a country to lose many thousands of jobs and for governments to claim, at the same time, higher levels of employment, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.
It all depends on the definition of what constitutes employment - in fact, how the statistics are massaged.
In England, for example, there is plentiful evidence of widespread job
losses, with many more in the pipeline. But the government there claims that
more people are now in work than at any time since 1975.
On paper this is true, but only because of the rapid growth in the self-employed sector and in part-time workers, especially those on insecure zero
hour contracts. These contracts mean that workers do not know from day to day,
let alone week to week, how many hours they will be called on to work and be
paid for.
Bell says there are echoes of this in South Africa’s economy, where anyone
doing even a few hours of paid labour a week is regarded as employed and where
someone hawking sweets on a street corner and earning a pittance is also
regarded as employed.
But having returned to South Africa after spending five weeks abroad, mainly in London, he notes
that he again saw the future, highlighted by the retail and services sector,
into which we are all being dragged. And it works. However, it should deeply
concern every worker.
Most obvious after an absence of more than two years from the UK was the impressive
spread of self service in retail outlets, with some major stores almost devoid
of any staff. This, says Bell, is the future and it has started its
march in South Africa, where we already suffer massive unemployment and
disparities of wealth and income.
At the same time, he points to the global decline in trade union membership - the only organised protection for workers. In such circumstances, the slogan Organise or starve becomes more pertinent than ever.
And he maintains that, at the very least, governments should be made to manage and regulate the way this automated future unfolds. And to do so for the benefit of the majority. Failure to do so will have dire consequences.
* Add your voice or just drop Terry a labour question. Follow Terry on twitter @telbelsa.
