Opinion : Finding a job is hard work

Only the other days my good self was chatting to a good friend about the work prospects in Wycombe.

Sadly my friend had lost their job, it’s bad enough losing work at any time let alone having to start the New Year without a regular income.

While there are plenty of jobs in the town most of them are filled by people who commute into Wycombe from nearby towns.

Not only do these commuters cause pollution and waste petrol getting here but they are taking work from the people who live in Wycombe.

It’s a shame the powers that be don’t give employers an incentive, such as tax reductions or lower business rates, to ensure they recruit local workers rather than bringing in people from elsewhere.

Once upon a time Wycombe was full of factories giving work to thousands of people, with the factories demolished the powers that be have allowed houses to be built in their place. What a mistake.

I fear there are now too many people in the town and not enough jobs creating a culture of accepted unemployment. Unemployment has become an accepted profession in it’s own right.

When it does come to applying for a job nowadays the newfangled internet has taken over meaning that with the click of a mouse one can apply for a job easier and quicker than ever before.

Sadly this means that employers are bombarded with applications, do you think they read every one? Probably not meaning that perhaps the most suitable candidate for the post is consigned to the electric wastebasket perhaps without their application even being considered fully.

Those with a job are lucky and those without face a desperate struggle to find work.

Despite the job shortage new houses are still being built in Wycombe thus distorting even further the balance between the number of jobs and the number of people looking for work.

Surely the unemployment rate and number of jobs in a town should be considered before the powers that be allow more houses to be built resulting in an increase of the potential workforce or, in the case of Wycombe, the size of the potentially unemployed workforce.

Finding a job these days is hard work is its own right.

What do you think?

*My next blog will be published on Friday evening around 8pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.