Anyone can find work

I was listening to Radio 5 this morning and there was a caller in discussion with the presenter and another person who held the opposite views. She sad that there were jobs "out there" and words to the effect that there was no excuse for people to be unemployed. This sounds reasonable if the vacancies exceed the number of unemployed. Even if it doesn't surely all it takes is for a bit of effort and a member of the band of unemployed will soon have that job. This person didn't just tell us how easy it was to find work but she told us with such conviction that it was fairly obvious that that those who do not work must be shirkers. This sort of speech goes down well in some party conferences (memories of getting on a bike).

Fortunately the other person gave the opposite view as to how difficult it was to find any work and the first person was invited to speak again. She was speechless. This was a pity because I got the impression that she would be happy to reproduce her previous rant to anyone who would listen but not if she had to answer for it.

For the first time in my life I was made redundant in September 2011 and thought that work would be easy to find. I have diplomas and a degree and a list of other qualifications as long as your arm. I don't have NVQs but my previous work involved helping others get through theirs. I looked for work for 8 months and after 151 applications I found it a couple of weeks ago. On average each application took a couple of hours to complete. I thought I was brilliant each time but employers thought differently and only three others called me for interview.

I don't think I could have worked harder to find work. Norman Tebbit may still claim that all it takes to find work is to get on a bike and it may go down well with those in work but my reality is a little different.

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