Seven people chase every single job in Bradford, says union

8:00am Monday 11th March 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Rhys Thomas, T&A Reporter

At least seven unemployed people apply for every job that becomes available in Bradford, a survey has revealed today.

Unison, the UK’s largest union, said that there are 7.4 applicants for each role that comes up in the district.

The union claims its research exposes the scale of the jobs crisis and the urgent need for a bold strategy for growth and jobs in the March 20 Budget.

John Cafferty, regional secretary for Unison in Yorkshire and Humberside, said: “The scale of the ongoing jobs crisis, especially in our larger towns and cities, is deeply worrying.

“Three long years of cuts - with more to come – and still there are not enough jobs to go around. The Government has got it wrong on the recession and it has sacrificed our recovery. As well as laying waste to our public services, cuts have a stranglehold on the private sector.

“The Government does have a choice. Use the Budget to outline a bold strategy for jobs and growth. Make people feel secure in their jobs and they are more likely to spend. Give public sector workers a decent pay rise and more money will flow through tills in local shops and businesses, helping our beleaguered high streets.

“The most damaging thing the Government could do is to plough on regardless with its reckless anti-growth, no hope, cuts strategy.”

Bradford Council leader Councillor David Green said the situation was not unique to Bradford. “It doesn’t come as a surprise to me, which is why we are so heavily involved in working to upskill people in the district and working with the private sector to create as many jobs as we can,” he said.

Coun Green said jobs needed to be created “to just stand still” and said: “If we have seven unemployed people for every new vacancy it indicates that more work needs to be done to create six more job opportunities. We are committed to creating as many new jobs as we can and to helping the private sector do their bit.”

David Ward, Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, said: “I am not pretending things aren’t difficult in Bradford, but we have got to be careful with these figures. Many people get jobs through word of mouth or through agencies. There are a lot more jobs than are advertised at the job centre.

“Many businesses I visit don’t use the job centre because a lot are unhappy with the people they get from there.”

Comments(27)

angry bradfordian says...
8:29am Mon 11 Mar 13

I don't know who I believe any more on unemployment.

On one hand we have the unions telling us that there are 7 interviewees per job (which doesn't sound like any more than the number of applicants I've had for job interviews at any time over the last 20 years)
On the other hand we're been told that there are more people in employment than any time in our history.

Perhaps the answer is that both are true and there are just too many people in the UK now to all be employed in an economy of our size?

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Gabbysgran says...
8:43am Mon 11 Mar 13

How many are foreigners here to steal our jobs and benefits?

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Apollo says...
9:03am Mon 11 Mar 13

Only 7?

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OutOfBradford says...
9:05am Mon 11 Mar 13

When I hear stories about people not being able to get a job it frustrates me.

When my wife and I hit some hard times about 18 months, I decided to look for a second part-time job. Within 3 hours I had one. I found the advert online, rang immediately and agreed to meet the employer that evening. 5 other people were meant to meet her that evening. I was the only one who turned up. I got the job there and then.

Half a day maximum from deciding to look for a second job to being employed.

Jobs ARE out there. I firmly believe some (possibly most) are too proud to take certain jobs.

A job is a job. Easier to claim benefits though.

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Nicnac25 says...
9:30am Mon 11 Mar 13

I don't know where they got their information from but that is wrong. My partner has been out of work for 4 months (through redundancy, no fault of his own) the jobs he's applied for on job boards have had 100-140 applications each and the roles are in various sectors; admin, customer service, project management etc. When you think recruitment agencies often recruit for the same roles as well, these 140 people are applying for the same role several times. So when you search for jobs and it tells you 30 jobs roles have been found but 10 agencies are recruiting for the same role. You only have 3 jobs available. And 1000 applicants vying for the same roles. My partner has been a recruitment consultant for 4 years so I know this to be true. To add to the struggle of finding roles, some of the agencies my partner has worked for has disregarded applicants based on their looks, and if they had any gaps in their cvs without even looking into the reasons for gaps. Even getting an interview is biased. One MAJOR organisation in leeds had an interview with an applicant and dismissed him based on how he put his bag down.
And that's even if the role your applying for is even available, many agencies used fake ads to draw in applicants to use for information.
My partner is no longer in recruitment thankfully. But if you look at the bigger picture there are less jobs out there than are being advertised, and we are being duped into believing false statistics based on averages through out yorkshire.

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i hate bradford says...
9:43am Mon 11 Mar 13

Outofbradford - should be called out of touch mate.

Benefits are not easy to get. Many vulnerable people get no money at all to support them simply due to the difficulty of claiming and understanding how.

Lots of disabled people find it so difficult to fill in forms and follow instructions that they are going hungry and homeless. They are struggling to get basic benefits due to there being far too many hoops to jump through.

Stop reading far right newspapers who use the worst case scenarios to brainwash the unintelligent into believing the scrounger/lazy benefit claimant lies.

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Nicnac25 says...
9:47am Mon 11 Mar 13

Has for outofbradford, you were extremely lucky, believe me it is difficult to get a job nowadays. I've had numourous family members out of work and not one of them have gotten a job within 8 weeks and most have had to change sectors and paycuts. It's easy to whine about how scroungers sitting and take benefits blah blah but when your on the other end of it it's not at all like that. There are people who don't want to work, but is that because they have no confidence in themselves or because they're living a cushty life on the dole. I very much doubt that you can live comfortably on £111 pounds per week jsa and £190 housing benefit. Unless your doing something illegal. I for sure I'm not living in luxury. Me and my partner are hardworking people I've worked ever since I left school just before I turned 16 and so has my other half. But yet my partner has lost his job twice in the past year not through not working hard but through his company not affording to keep him. And has been unemployed for 4 months. He hasn't been sat on his bum for months 'scrounging' he's been constantly looking for jobs in any area, any roles he can. Applying for roles and not even getting responses I've lost count of how many cvs he's send out it must be around the hundreds. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it's not happening!

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bd7 helper says...
10:07am Mon 11 Mar 13

SIMPLE AND EASY WE ARE STRUGGLING IN BRADFORD AND NEED HELP LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

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Blotto says...
10:08am Mon 11 Mar 13

14 years of Feckless & Bad Mismanagement by a Labour Government under Blair & Brown spent all the money hocked the Nation to a massive debt and now the usual idiots are trying to blame the present lot, who haven't got much leeway to make things easier, Just proves one thing though whoever the average working person votes for you'll always get **** on, I just think you get slightly less crapped on by the Tories!

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collos25 says...
10:45am Mon 11 Mar 13

If you had money to invest in providing new jobs and you were introduced to Mr Green and colleagues what would you do like most run a mile.Bradford is going through hard times made much worse by council members who are patheticallly useless.

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webess says...
10:50am Mon 11 Mar 13

Blotto wrote:
14 years of Feckless & Bad Mismanagement by a Labour Government under Blair & Brown spent all the money hocked the Nation to a massive debt and now the usual idiots are trying to blame the present lot, who haven't got much leeway to make things easier, Just proves one thing though whoever the average working person votes for you'll always get **** on, I just think you get slightly less crapped on by the Tories!
Quite so. Blair and Brown set out to create a client state of welfare recipients and public sector jobs dependant on Labour governments - all this was effectively financed by higher rate tax payers. Gerrymandering on a national scale...and now we're paying the price.

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Thee Voice of Reason says...
11:25am Mon 11 Mar 13

Unison, the UK’s largest union, said that there are 7.4 applicants for each role that comes up in the district.

Thats not many. Of the jobs I have got in the past there is usually someone how is being interviewed when I get there and someone waiting to be interviewed after I have had mine. So thats 3, and I bet there are several more who apply who don't get to the interview stage.

What does this union expect? 1 application per job?

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bonoforpm says...
11:32am Mon 11 Mar 13

OutofBradford is Outofhismind if he thinks it's that easy to get work - it simply is not.
He was much luckier than average to get any response from the employer, most applicants can't even get that.

Nicnac25 is spot on.
These numbers are just nonsense and are being spouted right left and centre by organisations that don't look at the facts.
Check it for yourself - look at the Reed website for Bradford jobs and see how many people have applied through them alone. It's always at least dozens and frequently 100+.
And, other people are applying for the same jobs through other web boards so the true total must be enormous.

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Not so simple says...
1:35pm Mon 11 Mar 13

There are plenty of jobs out there

The only catch is they do not pay enough.

Why would you want to work all week and get 250 a week?

The rent is £100+
The council tax is a variable of £20/30
The gas is £25
Electric is £20
Water is £20
Food is £70
Transport £30
forget saving and entertainment!
Add it up and you will see that more people are on benefits just because if they leave and find a job they will find themselves homeless and starving!

The system and the government are too blame.

Secondly as a proportion of the UK's population; the amount of people claiming benefits wrongly will be less then one percent! Yet the entire 3/5% of the population with no jobs have to suffer for the minority that abuse the system.

By the way the 99% of the tax payers and general population are paying for the mistakes and greed of the 1% of the population that got us into the recession aka bankers and politicians.

Wake up sheeple

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bd7 helper says...
2:08pm Mon 11 Mar 13

Not so simple wrote:
There are plenty of jobs out there

The only catch is they do not pay enough.

Why would you want to work all week and get 250 a week?

The rent is £100+
The council tax is a variable of £20/30
The gas is £25
Electric is £20
Water is £20
Food is £70
Transport £30
forget saving and entertainment!
Add it up and you will see that more people are on benefits just because if they leave and find a job they will find themselves homeless and starving!

The system and the government are too blame.

Secondly as a proportion of the UK's population; the amount of people claiming benefits wrongly will be less then one percent! Yet the entire 3/5% of the population with no jobs have to suffer for the minority that abuse the system.

By the way the 99% of the tax payers and general population are paying for the mistakes and greed of the 1% of the population that got us into the recession aka bankers and politicians.

Wake up sheeple
EVERYTHING IS GETTING EXPENSIVE WAGES ARE THE SAME WHO TO BLAME "BUDGET MAN"

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scottie dog says...
2:31pm Mon 11 Mar 13

webess wrote:
Blotto wrote:
14 years of Feckless & Bad Mismanagement by a Labour Government under Blair & Brown spent all the money hocked the Nation to a massive debt and now the usual idiots are trying to blame the present lot, who haven't got much leeway to make things easier, Just proves one thing though whoever the average working person votes for you'll always get **** on, I just think you get slightly less crapped on by the Tories!
Quite so. Blair and Brown set out to create a client state of welfare recipients and public sector jobs dependant on Labour governments - all this was effectively financed by higher rate tax payers. Gerrymandering on a national scale...and now we're paying the price.
The previous government had to pick up the the mess that thatcherite policies left the health service and schools in,ie buildings in disrepair in many circumstances not fit purpose, waiting lists for treatment as long as a year, have you forgotten the queues outside casualty with patients being kept in ambulances or on stretchers for hours at a time, yes the previous lot were guilty of not legislating against the banks, but let us not forget who destroyed industry in this country in an effort to curb unions and made us dependant on the banks, the privitsation policies that have landed the country with outlandish bills for gas, electricity and water, not to mention they are no longer owned by british business. while i am at it what happened to the 1.6% growth boy blunder inherited from labour ? while I agree the last lot were not perfect they were certainly better than the present lot yes we are all in it together as long as your a millionaire or a member of the elite.

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David Shaw says...
3:00pm Mon 11 Mar 13

I work in recruitment and 7 applicants for 1 job, isn't a huge number. My most recent ad was for part time bar casual bar staff and I received over 200 applications.

They also don't say how many of those 7 .4 where unemployed. Not everyone using the JC+ website is unemployed.

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The Hoffster says...
4:03pm Mon 11 Mar 13

OutOfBradford wrote:
When I hear stories about people not being able to get a job it frustrates me.

When my wife and I hit some hard times about 18 months, I decided to look for a second part-time job. Within 3 hours I had one. I found the advert online, rang immediately and agreed to meet the employer that evening. 5 other people were meant to meet her that evening. I was the only one who turned up. I got the job there and then.

Half a day maximum from deciding to look for a second job to being employed.

Jobs ARE out there. I firmly believe some (possibly most) are too proud to take certain jobs.

A job is a job. Easier to claim benefits though.
What job did you apply for online (and got it)?

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bd7 helper says...
4:23pm Mon 11 Mar 13

wow we all should claim what we waiting for. Easy life! Claim and Enjoy! forget the rest EASY life nowt to worry about the "PS3 KEEPS US GOING AND SKY" NICE ONE

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WayneRouke says...
5:54pm Mon 11 Mar 13

Apollo wrote:
Only 7?
What are the odds that ALP is NOT one of them?

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RollandSmoke says...
7:01pm Mon 11 Mar 13

I hope Philip Davies is getting the first round in tonight, the guys down the office deserve it for the cracking job they have done of trying to justify the unjustifiable. Work doesn't pay because the capitalists who benefit most from the work you do don't want to pay a decent wage, they would rather give 1 person an extra million than a million an extra quid. It's much like the tax that 1 in 4 companies are avoiding paying. Ok fair enough it could be used to improve the lives and enviroment of their workers and up their productivity by taking all that weight of their minds as to whether there is someone out there so desperate that they'll rob them while they're at work. Although they also profit from the paranoia.

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Another Landless Peasant says...
12:40am Tue 12 Mar 13

The Government's 'Final Solution' is to enslave the Workers, undermine the Unions and the Min. Wage and have enforced free Labour OR loss of State Benefits, puting everyone's jobs at risk. Please contact your MP a.s.a.p. and ask him/her to support EDM 1072, tabled by John McDonnell to nulify the Government's Workfare Regulations:

http://www.writetoth
em.com/

http://www.parliamen
t.uk/edm/2012-13/107
2

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Another Landless Peasant says...
1:09am Tue 12 Mar 13

Capitalism cannot function without unemployment. There is always going to be at least a Million or two unemployed, plus another Million or two that are sick or disabled. Fact of life. Why then do successive Governments continue to pour taxpayers' money down the drain on useless back-to-work schemes? To do so now, in an Economic Depression, when there are insufficient jobs, insufficient skills, and an ever-increasing population, is utterly pointless and is sheer madness....UNLESS of course it is all being done by design, and the unemployed provide a convenient scapegoat to distract the masses from failing policies in a failed system, and from whom the real architects of our demise are; ie. the rich parasites who cream-off all the profits and pay no tax, the Bankers, the Millionaires & Billionaires? Don't forget, recently published figures show that the top 100 richest people in the world became 60% richer over the last four years. We're all in this together?

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Not so simple says...
1:17am Tue 12 Mar 13

Another Landless Peasant wrote:
Capitalism cannot function without unemployment. There is always going to be at least a Million or two unemployed, plus another Million or two that are sick or disabled. Fact of life. Why then do successive Governments continue to pour taxpayers' money down the drain on useless back-to-work schemes? To do so now, in an Economic Depression, when there are insufficient jobs, insufficient skills, and an ever-increasing population, is utterly pointless and is sheer madness....UNLESS of course it is all being done by design, and the unemployed provide a convenient scapegoat to distract the masses from failing policies in a failed system, and from whom the real architects of our demise are; ie. the rich parasites who cream-off all the profits and pay no tax, the Bankers, the Millionaires & Billionaires? Don't forget, recently published figures show that the top 100 richest people in the world became 60% richer over the last four years. We're all in this together?
Agree. The poor/unemployed and vulnerable will always be diversionary scapegoats for useless politicians. We the people need to see through their bull and vote these buffoons out.

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Another Landless Peasant says...
1:18am Tue 12 Mar 13

The Government pin it all on the poor:

http://www.bbc.co.uk
/news/uk-21625446


...whilst perpetuating fraudulent money-laundering on a grand scale.

"The Bankers fund the Conservative Party – The Conservative Party fund the Bankers via The Work Programme Private Providers (i.e. Ingeus Delotte, a group of bankers in ‘The City’ of London).

And there you have IDS’s vicious little circle, the pawns caught in between are the people who work for Private Providers and the unemployed who have to attend these places."

WAKE UP AND SEE THRU' THE DECEPTION !!!! THIS IS WHERE ALL YOUR TAX MONEY IS GOING !!!!! YOU'VE BEEN LIED TO AND HAD !!!!!

SUPPORT EDM 1072 !!!!

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Another Landless Peasant says...
1:26am Tue 12 Mar 13

Stop wasting money on Workfare scams/schemes, (re-)Nationalize the Power companies, tax the rich, and give everyone else £100, 000. That will stimulate the economy.

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collos25 says...
9:37am Tue 12 Mar 13

I agree with the last two posts but the only thing that will change the balance of power is a revelution and that reminds of things that have passed before in Germany and Russia and the book 1984.

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