Background to the Research

• Within NI there has been considerable academic and political debate surrounding the issue of unemployment.
• NI has one of the largest concentrations of unemployment and especially long-term unemployment in the UK. Moreover, unemployment is not equally distributed between Protestant and Catholic communities.
• The aim of this paper is to highlight the fact that current supply-side labour market policies are having limited impact in NI, especially for the long-term unemployed. A number of policy proposals targeted at reducing LTU and Catholic and Protestant differences in unemployment rates are also discussed.
  

Research Approach

• The research project is drawn primarily from three sources.
• 1. A sample of 314 useable returned postal questionnaires of LTU claimants in West Belfast, drawn from the claimant register of unemployed people in relevant West Belfast Wards. Moreover, the sample is broadly representative of age structure.
• 2. Interviews with people involved in devising, implementing and participating in the CWP.
• 3. Interviews with human resource managers of fourteen major employers in the West Belfast area. Of the employers surveyed, six were locally owned, five were multi-nationals, two were GB owned and one was publicly owned. Two methods of eliciting data were used; a questionnaire that asked for basic data on employment and recruitment levels, and interviews.
• Secondary source material from academics, government and voluntary bodies is also used in an attempt to augment the research.
  

Main Findings

• NI's overall unemployment rate is persistently above the average for the fifteen European Union member states.
• NI's unemployment rate stood at 8.4 per cent in April 1997, compared with the UK rate of 5.9 per cent.
• NI has by far the most serious problem of LTU in the UK. For example, in January 1995, 57 per cent of unemployed claimants had been out of work for more than a year. Moreover, 23 per cent of unemployment claimants in NI have been unemployed for over five years compared with less than 5 per cent in the UK as a whole.
• There is an unequal distribution of unemployment between Catholics and Protestants in the Province. Catholic men remain more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their Protestant counterparts. Catholic women are about one and a half times more likely to be unemployed compared to their Protestant counterparts.
• Under the current fair employment legislation, there is limited scope to implement either public or private sector initiatives to target the LTU.
• The unemployment differential debate has largely failed to appreciate the Protestant/Catholic differences in both short-term and long-term unemployment.
• The majority of the LTU questioned were neither lacking in job search, nor rigid or inflexible in terms of their wages and occupational expectations. Over three-quarters (77per cent) of the LTU were searching for work, whilst 52 per cent of the LTU who were searching for work said they would consider any job.
• Catholics in the sample were more likely to have A-Levels (14 per cent Catholic and 9 per cent Protestant) and were less likely to have no formal qualifications compared to Protestants.
• The Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) introduced in October 1996 combines both incentives and penalties, i.e. the idea that benefits will only be paid on condition that unemployed people participate in training and employment schemes. However, studies have shown that the percentage of 'unskilled' and 'low-skilled' workers receiving training is the lowest of all working groups. Since these workers are the most likely to be LTU, existing training priorities are clearly flawed.
• A survey of firms, carried out by the NISB/NIERC in 1994, found that 40 per cent of employers would not normally consider interviewing those on Action for Community Employment (ACE) schemes for any vacancy that arose. Other government schemes also fared badly. Even though these schemes may be beneficial to employers, only one in five of those surveyed used the schemes.
• Results from the postal questionnaires revealed that attitudes towards training and employment schemes for both Protestants and Catholics were negative. Nearly half (47 per cent) felt that the schemes had 'no effect' on their chances of employment, and only 15 per cent felt that the schemes 'greatly increased' their chances of employment. Protestant men were most likely to respond that the scheme had 'greatly' (27 per cent) or 'slightly' (23 per cent) increased their chances of employment. Catholic men, on the other hand, said that the scheme had 'no effect' (51 per cent), or had decreased their chances of employment.
• Employers' attitudes to LTU are not encouraging. It was found that employers believe that being long-term unemployed is negatively correlated with the applicant's likely performance or general suitability for the job. In particular, employers (like governments!) often believe that the LTU lack motivation and a good 'work ethic'.
• Employers in West Belfast identified 'experience' and 'stable employment' as very important.
• All of the employers said that the length of time that an individual had been unemployed affected their attitudes towards hiring the person.
• Six of the nine employers who had recently recruited LTU people said that there was really 'no difference' between the LTU and other workers in terms of their work performances.
• Three employers who found differences in performance between the LTU and other workers identified poor time-keeping and high absenteeism as the most significant problems.
• Employers were asked what might encourage them to recruit more LTU. The most important factor identified was 'a growth in the volume of sales'. Approximately half of employers said an improvement in job applications, skills, presentation, motivation and attitudes would encourage them to recruit more LTU.

Conclusion

• There is a need for a fresh approach to LTU and employment equity which takes account of real labour market change and process, and which involves sharing more of the responsibility in actively targeting unemployed people.
• The evidence from the research questions many of the assumptions behind government labour market policies and the ability of these policies to address Catholic and Protestant unemployment inequalities in NI.
• The markedly worse Catholic experience of LTU, with its attendant and growing exclusion from the formal labour market, is not simply unfair but can only be adequately understood in terms of Catholics' historically inferior and unequal position in the NI labour market as a whole.
• The role of the employers needs to become a central concern in policy making with respect to unemployed people.
• New training and employment schemes in NI are simply supply-side interventions, which fail to incorporate the 'missing ingredient' required in successful labour market policies - labour demand.
• Most new jobs go to job changers, and that will continue unless there are new inventive policies to influence recruitment of the unemployed.
• Essentially, there is a need for 'social' clauses in government grants and contracts to target jobs for the unemployed. For example, in areas of high unemployment, the goal of recruiting LTU people should be made a priority and a condition of state support, at least until such a time as inequalities in unemployment are substantially reduced.