In January 2,320 Slough men and women claimed unemployment benefits. This was just two more than the December total. Since numbers out of work usually rise substantially in January, this can be considered an improvement.
Figures of employment in 2003 have just arrived. The total in employment in Slough was 74 thousand - a 4% drop on 2002's 77 thousand. Jobs in manufacturing fell 6% to just under 11 thousand. But the sharpest decline was in "public administration, education and health" – by over 10% to under 12 thousand. More details later!
Recent anniversaries have brought together consideration of the Nazi Concentration Camp at Auschwitz, liberated in 1945, and the RAF bombing of Dresden in 1945. Some have put then in the same status as war crimes. But are they not very different? Auschwitz was part of the long-term Nazi plan to eliminate certain peoples, chiefly but not only Jews, simply because conflicted with Nazi ideology of racial purity. A crime against humanity if ever there was one. By contrast, the bombing of Dresden was an act of Total Warfare, which the city had so far escaped, despite its importance in manufacture of war products and as transport hub. And most people did not have proper air-raid shelters. The best estimate is that 35 thousand were killed that night of 13/14th February (not the much higher figure claimed by holocaust deniers). A tragedy, but not an Auschwitz-style War Crime.
Unemployment is still a more important issue than most of us realise, even in a prosperous town in the prosperous South East, like Slough. We hope soon to show a chart of unemployment rates: Slough and the UK average. That is the numbers claiming unemployment benefits expressed as a percentage of the labour force. Currently the rates look low. Slough unemployment rose sharply above average in the early nineties before easing back in the years up to 2001. Although it has been on the rise again in the last three years, the Slough rate is only 4% (compared with the national 2.4%).
These figures, however, are total counts of just those claiming benefit. There are many more who would like a job but are not eligible for benefit for reasons including recent redundancy payment, inability to start work almost immediately (child-care issues etc) and giving up looking.
The government's monthly Labour Force Survey shows the total of those out of work who would like a job. Over the country as a whole it is four or five times the claimant total. The survey is based on a sample, which is too small to give a reliable estimate other than the total "economically active", town by town. But we have evidence to suggest that the national proportion fits Slough. Thus the 2,318 claimants in Slough in December 2004 indicate that there may well be some 10,000 Slough women and men who are not employed but would like a job.