You can't just take a job
Competition is tough
Politicians and the public alike look at the number of vacancies on offer at any given time and compare them to the official unemployment statistics, which are artificially low thanks to various exclusions as I explain in Lies, big lies and statistics. They then ask why all those unemployed people aren't taking these jobs. The short answer is that nobody can just take a job. You have to apply for one, which immediately puts you in competition with other people who are also after that same job.
Many of those other people already have a job but seek a change. Others may be just starting out on their careers. There are also people who seek jobs but who, for whatever reason (perhaps their partner works), aren't claiming any benefits. We also mustn't forget all those people who are excluded from the official unemployment statistics, as some of them continue looking for work. If I could just take a job then I would, always providing that it was within my capability to perform the job to a commercially acceptable standard. But here's a rejection letter that is a typical response to an application for a job that involves a career change.
Thank you for your recent application in respect of the vacancy, but I regret that you have been unsuccessful with your application as we have received applications from candidates who more closely fit the job criteria.
Suitability
Given the kind of rejection letter I've just cited, it is unlikely that an employer would offer me a job that I'm completely unsuited to, but it's theoretically possible. In such circumstance, I won't last long in that job unless, of course, the government is paying the employer to have me, as is the case on New Deal. Apart from whatever effect that has on me personally, the employer, wishing to avoid a repetition of such a bad experience, is much less likely to be willing to take on other unemployed people thereafter. This may explain why the vast majority of New Deal projects are run by charities rather than conventional employers, most of whom would rather have their jobs done properly. The charities are primarily concerned with raising money for their causes and make plenty of it just by putting up with unemployed people. Any actual work they get out of them is extra on top of that. As long as most people can do the work to a reasonable standard, they are satisfied.
So the government and the public are totally misconceived in thinking that unemployed people can simply take whatever jobs are out there. I apply for a range of jobs, some more suitable than others, but it's significant that such interest as employers show tends to be for those jobs that draw in some way on my background as a computer programmer, with the most encouraging responses coming as a result of my applications for programming jobs, though my skills in that area are so outdated now that even they rarely elicit an encouraging response these days. Employers see from my CV what my background is and decline my application for most other types of job, preferring to employ people with a background that better matches what they are after, as my sample rejection letter illustrates.
Polly Toynbee's book
In her book Hard work: life in low-pay Britain, Polly Toynbee explored some of the issues involved, but did so by using a different identity and creating a fake CV. It would be interesting to see how easy it would be for Polly Toynbee to obtain low-grade jobs (even if she falls victim to redundancy) using her recognized name and a genuine CV, especially as the jobcentre from which she found the vacancies would filter her applications for those jobs that don't have a contact address. Many employers only allow their vacancies to appear in jobcentres without contact addresses to reduce bogus applications. Even if Polly Toynbee applied for those jobs by other means (thus circumventing the filtering process), how would she explain her desire to do such work?
If I were to obtain any kind of job by deception, I'd be in big trouble were I ever to be found out. It's difficult to imagine that I could have ever successfully covered up my past, but now that there's so much stuff out there on the worldwide web about or by me, it would be virtually impossible, as a Google search on my full name shows.
I'll keep looking
Yes, I'll continue to look for many different types of jobs including low-grade jobs, but trying to convince employers that they should offer such jobs to me is another matter entirely, especially as it would be clear in most cases that my only motivation is to get work of whatever kind. It may be easier for me to persuade an employer if the job is only a starter for greater things to come but at my age, I'm unlikely to be seriously considered for such jobs, as I make clear when discussing Sexism and ageism.
Some people half-understand
I've seen comments by people who say they don't count me as a benefit scrounger, so their anger isn't directed at me. Unfortunately, neither the politicians nor the jobcentres are interested in such distinctions, especially as some people do count me as a scrounger (and sometimes a fraudster too), as I explain in Am I a benefit scrounger?.
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