“Job centers are very hopeful”: How Labor wants to help people find work | unemployment

“TThat’s why I love job centers: because they are places full of hope.” Employment minister Alison McGovern has just spent half an hour sitting on the edge of a desk in a dreary office building in Hoxton, east London, listening to the advice of a group of job coaches.

“Very hopeful” is not the stereotypical view of employment centers, whose employees are tasked with reviewing benefit applications and guiding them to jobs. Job centers have been repeatedly criticized, not least by McGovern’s boss Liz Kendall, who said they were not fit for purpose.

McGovern is here to point out that a revamped job center network will play a central role in the government’s plans to “make Britain workable”, according to a white paper published this week.

Since the UK emerged from coronavirus lockdowns, policymakers have been concerned about the many thousands of people who have fallen out of the labor market.

“The big question that I think everyone in the country has been thinking about in the wake of the pandemic is how we can deal with the fact that our nation appears to be doing less well than before, and as a result, partly from that and partly from other things too “It seems to be working less,” says McGovern.

To address the problem, the government is targeting an 80% employment rate (up from just under 75%). To achieve this, up to 2 million people would have to be put back into work.

This busy job center hosts a careers fair where local employers and training providers have set up shop. Hundreds of local job seekers line up to meet them or chat with consultants.

After touring the crowded room, McGovern asked the trainers to tell her about their work trying to help scores of welfare claimants get back into the job market — and what would make that easier.

The white paper sets out plans to “transform” the UK’s 650 job centers into “a true public employment service”, with £55 million set aside next year to implement the changes.

The job coaches enthusiastically talk about their successes – but also about the challenges of dealing with the bureaucratic social security system and outdated IT.

Shohel Ahmed told McGovern that he often sees applicants who have language barriers that prevent them from finding work. He can point them to language lessons, but also tries to give them the confidence to move forward.

“The main factor I have found in work coaching is, above all, motivation,” he says. “It’s about me building that relationship with you, building that relationship.”

Cansu Orhan works specifically with 18 to 24 year olds. She says many of them have mental health problems. “I also think young people would prefer to all work remotely,” she adds.

Oladele Woye tells the Minister that he works with young people at risk of serious youth violence, many of whom have served time in prison or juvenile detention centers. “If you can help me, my bugbear is finding employers who are friendly to ex-offenders,” he tells her.

McGovern said she had discussed the issue with Justice Minister James Timpson and asked Woye to email her with further details.

“The problem broadly is that there are no work coaches,” McGovern says. “The problem is time. So if you spend your time dealing with outdated technology and inadequate systems that are tedious, the person in front of you is just sitting there.”

She says she wants to cut complicated bureaucracy and improve the technology at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to “free up time” for what she calls “what only another person can do, which is help build it.” . “Boost your confidence and give this person the tools they need.”

As shadow employment minister, McGovern repeatedly complained about the lack of detailed evidence on the performance of government re-entry programs.

Now that she is in government, her department has released a range of employment data alongside the white paper.

McGovern highlights one aspect of the analysis that is particularly important to her: fewer than 8% of job-seeking Universal Credit claimants find a job each month, and this proportion has been falling in recent years.

“The employment rate is bad and falling,” she says. “Although many unemployment offices do the right thing, the system doesn’t help.”

For those customers who don’t need the intensive help of job coaches and can easily be referred to local jobs, McGovern says “the ease of contacting your bank is comparable.”

“We need people to have a job center in their pocket if that’s what’s best for them, and that frees up time for people who really need it.”

The DWP has also published regional analysis of labor markets and McGovern says this will be important as the role of job centers varies in different areas.

“Decentralization is really important in its own right, but also because our labor markets are like a postcode lottery. Your chances and possibilities depend largely on where you are at the moment.”