LETTER: Unemployment surge will hit hard
On and on the list goes. British Gas 5,000, Rolls Royce 3,000, JLR 1,100. The grim tally of new unemployed rising each day.
The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits has increased by 126 per cent since the beginning of the lockdown. HMRC say 612,000 in March alone.
Furlough is a positive scheme, but a sticking plaster on a huge slash of hurtful unemployment across The Black Country. When furlough ends, unemployment is expected to reach 1980s levels. A horrific period in our jobs history. Soon bills, bailiffs knocking, never ending wait for welfare money, being hungry, cold and bored.
Lockdown and social distancing didn’t stop thousands protest Black Lives Matter or go to the beach! Where are the protests, outrage and demonstrations about local people fighting for their jobs? Unemployment is a huge cost to human life too.
As a country and region we have experienced periods of mass unemployment. Labour, unions and trendy lefties are now AWOL for our fight for local jobs.
Now your only hope is Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” claims. Workers and newly unemployed have been deserted by Labour and unions, who only fight each other these days or divide over culture wars.
Were any lessons learned from Labour’s worst general election results in 35 years?
Cllr Doug James, Walsall
