STOCK MARKET WATCH - Wednesday, 1 February 2012

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72. The everyday struggle to find work {uk}

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/01/hull-everyday-struggle-find-work

Right, that's quite enough time wasted on Mr Goodwin, let's focus today on people at the other end of the social pile whose fate may be greatly affected by today's parliamentary battle over Iain Duncan Smith's welfare bill. Amelia Gentleman describes what sort of individuals they are in a heart-rending article in today's Guardian.

I know you're busy, but spare a few minutes to read at least some of it. Gentleman went to Hull, a very distinctive city on the mouth of the Humber where she interviewed and observed those involved in the government's latest version of the welfare-to-work programmes. It seeks to get the unemployed – especially the hardest-to-reach long-term jobless – back into the labour force where, current theory insists (I broadly agree), most of us are healthier and happier.

By coincidence the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) today publishes a 60-year survey of British working habits – you'll find it here – to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.

Though much has improved in 60 years, we don't seem much happier after all, says the CIPD, not least because work-related stress, new technologies and consequent information overload (you're reading an example here, perhaps you should stop!).