The new unemployment figures – covering the last three months of 2011 – show that those numbers out of work now stand at 2.67 million, a rate of 8.4%, the highest for seventeen years. Women have been particularly affected; they make up two-thirds of the rise of 48,000 now on the dole.  Women account for 1.1million of those out of work, the highest such figure for other two decades.  Over 22,000 of those added to the total figures this time are also in the 16 to 24-year age range.

It is expected that over three quarters of those who will lose their jobs in the public sector in the next year will be women.  It should be noted that benefit cuts will also hit women particularly hard.  The government’s hope that private sector jobs would replace public sector ones is a receding fantasy. In fact, layoff and shutdowns are continuing with new closures being reported every week. The best they can offer is low-paid, temporary and part-time jobs.

Capitalists are continuing to shed jobs to protect profits. Where this happens unions should demand the opening of the books so we can see the real situation and see who is grabbing all the cash. Bosses who think they can run off with nice fat profits at our expense should be told – share out the work with no loss of pay! That will wipe the smiles off their faces.

The job prospects for young people also remain desperate.  A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank shows the grim mood of youth today. The report, ‘ Young People and Savings’, looked at the opinions of over 1,500 young people aged 16 – 29, all earning less than £21,000 a year at best.  The results revealed the following:

• Around 47% do not feel financially secure against just 29% who do.
• Only 28% thought they would be better off than their parents - 53% said they would be worse off.
• 41% worry about their monthly costs.
• 50% worry about their job prospects – only 27% do not.
• 25% have no savings at all. An additional 10% have just £100 in the bank!
• 30% have debts of over £10,000.

These responses tended to become more downbeat the lower down the pay scale they were with unemployed youth having the least optimistic outlook.

We see here the real face of Britain with working class people being hit hardest by the capitalist system.  Women and youth have been targeted. The IPPR report shows how hope is fading away from the youth – traditionally one of the most optimistic sections of society. When they give up, you know things are bad.

The Tories have nothing to say on this other than keep going with the cuts. The best that the Labour leadership can come up with in response is – do the same but just a bit slower. Indeed the Blairite backstabbers have been hard at work making sure that the leadership spell out clearly to the City of London that, should they win the next election, they will take similar “hard measures” to shore up this rotten system. There are no other “acceptable” options under capitalism and none should be expected.  Anyone waiting for a more humane capitalism to arrive will have a very long and fruitless wait indeed. 

The time has come to change course – workers must push for Labour to fight the Coalition attacks with clear socialist policies. The unions need to rise up and grab control of the situation and direct the movement along a socialist course.  The reorganisation of the world of work based on a socialist plan of production under workers control and management would create the resources to solve all the problems of society. The working week could be immediately reduced, unemployment wiped out and a living wage paid to all.

Here is the basis for a real future that would give hope to all those who now find themselves on the capitalist scrapheap.