British Government is a Major Cause in Decreasing Unemployment in the UK - Essay Example

British government is a major cause in decreasing the rate of unemployment in the UK Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 6 References 7 Introduction Recent financial crisis and global economic recession affected the economic environment of UK. Low disposable income, limited purchasing power and rise in unemployment rate are major consequences of this economic crunch. It is true that, government should be responsible to maintain economic sustainability of a country. British government has taken several initiatives to reduce the impact of economic downturn on the employment rate. Development of effective and sustainable policies helped people of UK to capitalize on the potential employment opportunities developed by government during the post-recession era. Major aim of this essay is to address the initiatives that are taken by British Government in order to reduce the growing unemployment rate. Discussion The first reason is British Government has utilized taxes that are collected from the common people in order to create employment opportunities for job seekers in public sectors. In addition to this, the British government has introduced government welfare expenditure programme in the year 2012 to provide income benefits to common people by utilising the tax amount. British government announced 16 percent of government spending in the year 2011 to create employment opportunities for job seekers (Heyes, 2011, p.6). Government has made significant investments in several benefit areas, such as state pension, disability living allowance, income support for job losers, rent rebate, allowances of job seekers and pension credit for old people. Government has ensured these expenditures by utilizing collected public tax amount. In the financial year 2011-12, the British government has made huge investment to pay employment benefits to unemployed people during the era of post economic recession. It is true that public service pension cost has risen effectively in last 10 years (HM Treasury, 2013, p.16). Moreover, British government has invested in several public service development programmes, such as introduction of public schools, hospitals and other institutions. Expenditure behind these initiations can come under other uncategorized expenditure. It enables huge number of job seekers to find employment opportunities in these public sectors. First of all, these developments used to help the common people to stabilize their social life. On the other hand, development process of these public services generally generates significant employment opportunities for the common people (Hall, 2003, p.21). Government generally utilises this tax amount in the development of public services. Generating employment in these sectors has helped the British Government to reduce the growing unemployment rate (Wall, 2010, p.32). Therefore, I agree that proper utilisation of public tax has helped the British government to generate employment opportunity for the job seekers. Youth Contract is the second reason initiated by British government to reduce unemployment rate in UK providing significant employment opportunities to the young job seekers. It is clear from above discussion that British government has taken several initiatives in order to create employment opportunities for the common people in UK. Introduction of Youth Contract can be considered as one of the significant initiatives undertook by government in order to reduce the growing unemployment rate due to economic crunch. The government introduced this Youth Contract in the year 2012 to help young job seekers to get a job (Gov, 2014). It also helps an entrepreneur to find appropriate job seekers with significant skill and knowledge. This Youth Contract also influences entrepreneurs to provide significant training and work experience to the young unemployed job seekers (Piachaud, 2013, p.22). Under this Youth Contract, job seekers or young unemployed individuals can get significant help. According to this contract, British Government will generate half a million new job opportunities for the individuals aged between 18 and 24 (Rowthorn, 2014, p.4). Moreover, government will ensure voluntary work experience and apprenticeships placement opportunities for the young unemployed individuals through this contract. Government has allocated significant amount of fund to make this contract highly successful (Layard, 2012, p.17). This initiative has helped the youths and will help to generate more employment opportunities in near future. Therefore, I agree that British Government has taken significant initiative through Youth Contract by providing valuable job opportunities to the young job seekers in this era of post economic recession. Third reason is Policies and Programmes for Youth Employment developed by British Government to help young people to capitalize on potential employment opportunities through this initiation. British government has developed a clear strategy in order to support the young unemployed people on five different priorities (Gov, 2013, p.23). First of all, British government has developed several awareness programmes for employees to ensure them to develop and show their skills and competencies in order to compete in global economy, including high quality and effective vocational training and education. Secondly, the British government has helped the young unemployed people by supporting local partners (Birch, 2013, p.87). It helped to provide significant and co-ordinated services to these young unemployed job seekers. Supporting local partners has helped the unemployed individuals to get help during the period of economic slowdown (Chapman, 2010, p.35). Thirdly, British government has also encouraged several small and medium entrepreneurs to motivate and inspire young people through effective training and development programmes. Moreover, the government gas also encouraged the entrepreneurs to provide significant work experience to young employees through internships and voluntary job responsibilities (Crafts, 2007, p.257). Significant work benefits, work pays and promoting individual responsibilities have been ensured by government during the post-recession era in order to motivate employees and other unemployed individuals to work effectively. Last but not the least; development of vast conditions for sustainable and balanced growth rate is the major aim of British government in order to bring flexibility in labour market. Therefore, I agree that development of awareness programmes and several key initiatives has helped British Government to i9nfleunce the young people to grab potential employment opportunities. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that recent economic slowdown affected the employment generation in UK. British government has taken several prime initiatives in order to reduce the growing unemployment rate. The government has effectively utilizes the public tax in the development of several public service institutions. This strategy automatically generated employment in UK. Apart from this, Youth Contract policy and other employment programmes helped government of UK to generate employment opportunities for young unemployed individuals. References Birch, A., 2013. British system of government. London: Kogan Page. Chapman, P., 2010. Britain’s economic performance. London: Routledge. Crafts, R., 2007. Work and pay in 20th century Britain. London: Sage. Gov., 2013. Government evidence on EU action to tackle youth Unemployment. [PDF]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/262817/bis-13-1315-government-evidence-on-eu-action-tackle-youth-unemployment.pdf. [Accessed on August 29, 2014]. Gov., 2014. Helping people to find and stay in work. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/helping-people-to-find-and-stay-in-work. [Accessed on August 29, 2014]. Hall, P., 2003. Policy Paradigms. Comparative politics, 18(1), p.21. Heyes, J., 2011. Flexicurity, employment protection and the job crisis. Work, employment and society, 34(5), p.6. HM Treasury., 2013. Spending round 2013. [PDF]. Available at: < https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/209036/spending-round-2013-complete.pdf>. 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