Pages

Pages

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Observation on poverty

Low pay and reduced job security are key outcomes of the recession. Sociologists have even coined a term for the growing number of people - many of them agency workers - who live this blighted existence. They call them the 'precariat'. The precariat are workers likely to be laid off, working part-time for low wages and turning up when they are asked. Being in the precariat means the fear of being pitched deeper into it and the likelihood your children will continue in it

Many are found in agency jobs in what was once the public sector - cleaning and caring.

A report from the Rowntree Foundation is yet another reminder that working hard does not necessarily keep a family out of poverty. Half of children living below the Government's official poverty line have at least one parent working. 69% of these children, who generally get free school meals, leave school without the five GCSEs which are generally necessary for a reasonably-paid job and are unlikely to get into higher education.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/liam-clarke/new-jobs-must-push-people-out-of-poverty-16153490.html

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:57 am

    Come to Manila, talk about poverty but don't observe it:

    Delegates attending an international conference in the Philippines capital may not see what they came to discuss: abject poverty.

    A makeshift, temporary wall has been erected across a bridge on a road from the airport to downtown Manila that hides a sprawling slum along a garbage-strewn creek...

    http://tinyurl.com/6okcdha

    ReplyDelete
  2. many thanks for your recent comments,anonymous, keep them coming

    ReplyDelete