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Unemployment hits blue collar workers hardest

Wednesday 15th July 2009

By Sam Collins

This may have been dubbed a middle-class Recession because of the impact on financial institutions but it is blue collar not white collar workers who have been hit hardest.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) points to available figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which show that blue collar workers - skilled and unskilled - have suffered far more than white collar workers from rising unemployment.

According to LFS figures - published on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website - the rise in the blue collar unemployment rate in the year ending March 2009 was more than three times greater than that for people with managerial and professional skills and almost three-times greater than that for people with administrative and secretarial skills.

Since the LFS counts as "unemployed" people who are jobless and actively seeking work, rather than simply those receiving Jobseeker's Allowance, these figures are not distorted by the possibility that managers and professionals might have a lower propensity to sign on for benefits and thus provide the most reliable official indicator of the relative impact of the jobs downturn on different groups of workers.

The relatively lower rise in white collar unemployment is likely to be in part explained by continued growth in overall public sector employment during the Recession to date and also to the fact that skilled managers and professionals have a better chance of making an early return to work when they lose their jobs.

By contrast, skilled blue collar trades people have been hit hard by the Recession in the manufacturing and construction sectors, the manufacturing sector having suffered the largest proportionate loss of jobs. And as might be expected, the least skilled blue collar workers (those performing "elementary occupations") have been the biggest losers in the jobs downturn.

John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said the LFS figures suggested the common perception that the UK was experiencing a "white collar recession", unlike those of the 1980s and 1990s, was somewhat wide of the mark:

"The relative impact of the Brown recession on different groups of workers looks remarkably similar to the Thatcher and Major recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, with skilled and unskilled blue collar workers once again bearing the brunt.

"Heavy job losses in the financial and business services sectors - plus the fact that jobless managers and professionals often attract more public attention - probably explain why there has been so much talk about a 'white collar recession'. But the unemployment figures clearly show that blue collar manual workers have suffered most."

Have your say on this story using the comment section below

View Comments 2 comments

Posted By Susie on Wednesday 15th July 2009 11:45:11
Of course it is blue collar -ie) working classes who get hit hardest in this and any recession

Posted By Le Grande on Wednesday 15th July 2009 11:43:22
White collar recession somehow sounds sexier to media types

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End of beginning as downturn slows slightly
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