Apologies for my recent absence, I had to travel to Yorkshire with the family for a couple of days. It’s a world away from the hustle and bustle of London; with the only real choice I had to make was which fish and chip shop to head to!
The North is a clearly a very different place to the South, and in particular London. In the last recession it was the North that was hit hardest; the blue collar workers were left in disarray with their livelihoods in tatters, however, this time it’s a different story.
This is a very middle class recession. It is going to effect middle England like never before, and I cannot emphasise enough the importance to get your stuff together and to ready for the potential, bold out of the blue phone call. In years gone by, our Economy was underpinned by manufacturing, however that as we all know has moved steadily to the current Service lead industries we all love to hate in 2008. The manufacturing and engineering roles will undoubtedly still get hit, and hard, but there simply isn’t the levels of employment in that sector that we saw last time round. Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7732164.stm
The LGA (Local Government Association) has announced this week that London is most at risk to be hit by the recession and I can absolutely see why. On my journeys around the UK researching my work it is absolutely apparent to me that this is a bombshell waiting to explode. People simply are not aware of the implications of their jobs and the income and earnings this provides. For years people have been focused on investment, they’ve been focused on spending the money that seemed to literally fall into their lap, and I know why – I did it!
The LGA report suggests that nearly 8% of all jobs in London are under threat by 2012, and this, I fear is jus the tip. Unemployment is tipped to push 3 million, but it is the knock on effect this has on the wider economy. Taxation levels will fall to an unprecedented low – the Government has a choice, cut public expenditure in line with income or continue and create a taxation deficit that will need to be found somewhere, sometime. This will strain the public sector, which is about to be needed more than ever! – How many people have Private Health Insurance? How many people send their children to Private School? Of course, there are many individuals who will always be wealthy enough to support such expenditure.
A recent report by Halifax Financial Services showed that the average Private school fees were £10,239 a year, or £853.23 a month in 2008. Imagine the number of people that could afford that figure that simply hasn’t got a hope this time next year? How many people are going to be re-entering the state system? The schools already have squeezed budgets, and they are going to have to do more with less money. The same will be said for the private health service as Bupa, AXA PPP are all supported by large corporate companies who add their products to their benefits packages – redundancies means smaller subscriptions on behalf of their staff, and for those that pay for this out of their personal income, it is very likely to mean that this will be removed from peoples monthly expenditure.
We need a solution, and we need it fast. If we don’t stimulate the job market, this will have an enormous effect on society, and not only for those in the dole queue. But for now, I am still working out whether Cod or Haddock is the order of the day.
Tut’ Later,
JS
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