Very thoughtful piece by Sean O’Grady in the Independent this morning – So where on earth have all the proper jobs gone?
He observes that while full-time jobs are going down, part-time jobs are increasing. I remember 20 odd years ago some futurist forecasting that in the future, we would all have 3 or 4 jobs and I just couldn’t imagine it, less still than that would be happening to me now.
On one level, it’s great that not everyone has to become conformist corporate wage slaves anymore. But the self-employed, portfolio jobber requires a surplus of work to make it work for him and must generate higher savings because cash flow is much less predictable and work much less secure. Benefits are in short supply.
On that last point, I was at an excellent seminar at Civitas with Dr Irwin Stelzer this lunchtime. I was very taken during the discussion about China, that the savings rate there was as high as 50%, because there was absolutely no welfare to fall back on, which is why – even after years of growth – the Chinese consumer is still something of an oxymoron.