Election 2015
Do the manifestos offer more and better jobs?
While all parties promising higher wages and more and better quality apprenticeships, there is barely a mention of productivity.
While all parties promising higher wages and more and better quality apprenticeships, there is barely a mention of productivity.
All of the parties are promising more jobs and higher wages if they get elected. Under these broad, headline commitments, there is a focus on apprenticeships and increasing the minimum wage. Yet the connection isn’t being made – at least in the manifestos – between higher wages and the need for increased productivity. And beyond some level of commitment to devolve funding down to local areas, it’s not clear how the parties plan to close the divides that exist across the country when it comes to accessing more and better jobs.
On apprenticeships, it’s good to see politicians looking beyond the numbers to the quality of placements available. The number of placements available is still low in some areas: 21 per cent of employers in Manchester offer apprenticeships, while just 11 per cent in London do. Yet in areas that have succeeded in getting more employers to offer apprenticeships supply is outweighing demand. To some extent this is about changing perceptions through better information, but it’s also about the quality of apprenticeships being offered: just two in five apprenticeships last more than a year; one in five apprentices state they receive no training (on the job or off it) and less than two in 100 placements are higher apprenticeships that can lead to the equivalent of a degree level qualification. These statistics need to change if apprenticeships are to become a real alternative to university in the UK.
Alongside creating more pathways in to employment, there is also an emphasis on creating better conditions for those already in work, with all parties pledging to increase the minimum wage. This will only go so far to improve job quality and will have relatively little bite in high cost cities.
Ultimately, the most fundamental issue when it comes to pay and job progression is productivity, although it receives relatively little attention in the manifestos (for every 10 times apprenticeships are mentioned, productivity is mentioned once). You might choose to forgive absence of the word ‘productivity’ as it’s not particularly PR-friendly but it is fundamental to improving standards of living, achieving growth in the long term and bringing down the deficit. It requires having a long-term strategy and thinking about how all the factors that affect productivity – skills, access to finance and infrastructure, for example – come together in different places. Both are relatively absent across the party manifestos.
The next government needs to incentivise business investment by committing to long-term strategies that instil confidence in businesses. Short-termism and place-blind policies are not going to solve the UK’s most fundamental issue, or as a consequence, the issue of low pay.
To find out more about what the different parties have pledged on jobs and skills, read our General Election 2015 Manifestos Briefing here.
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