Occupational

1. Natural ability. People differ in natural ability and
some occupations require a high level of intelligence, or
particular natural aptitudes which are only possessed by a
certain proportion of the population. For this reason sur­
geons, physicists, mathematicians, designers, and enter­
tainers form a relatively small proportion of the population.

2. Training. The prevailing system of apprenticeship in
many trades is geared to the training of people between the
ages of 16 and 21 years. This tends to make it difficult for an
older man to learn a new trade, especially when fully skilled
status is only granted to those who have served the recog­
nized period of apprenticeship.

Many professions demand a very long period of educa­tion and training (e.g. doctors, architects). In spite of the government aid in the form of training grants, such extend­ed periods still require considerable financial sacrifice by the student and his family. The length of the training period itself may prove a deterrent to some people.

 

3. Capital. A certain amount of capital is required in
order to enter some occupations. In order to establish one­
self as an entrepreneur in the retail trade or some other form
of one-person business (e.g. jobbing builder, or hairdresser),
capital is needed to purchase the necessary stock and equip­
ment. The purchase of a practice or partnership may be nec­
essary if one wishes to become established as a solicitor,
accountant, or estate agent. These requirements will consti­
tute a financial barrier to many prospective entrants.

4. Class. It is held by many people that the existing class
structure is responsible for some restrictions on the occupa­
tional mobility of labour. A particular type of social back­
ground with an education at one of the more famous public
schools provide, it is believed, definite advantages in certain
fields of employment.

Policies to assist mobility

The barriers to geographical mobility are quite formida­ble, and while the UK government does provide financial assistance towards the cost of removal for unemployed workers, it has tended to deal with the problem of regional unemployment by 'moving work to the workers'. Many employers anxious to attract workers from other areas offer assistance with removal costs and sometimes provide accommodation.

One problem may be lack of knowledge; employers may not be fully-informed of the potential labour supply and workers may be ignorant of certain job opportunities. The UK government has recently embarked upon a major pro­gramme to extend and improve its information services in this area. The older and rather forbidding Employment Exchanges are being replaced by modern and attractive Job Centres which, it is hoped, will encourage both employers and job-seekers to use the facilities provided by the state. There are, of course, a number of privately operated

 

employment agencies, and employers also make great use of the local press as a means of recruiting labour.

A most important feature of official policy on the occu­pational mobility of labour is the provision of Retraining Centres (currently known as Skill Centres) where workers can learn new skills.

The UK has about 60 such centres and is in the process of opening more of them. It is important, of course that ade­quate financial assistance is available to those people attending retraining centres since many of them will be older workers with family responsibilities. Since these are the people who are bearing the main burdens of economic change, it seems reasonable that the state should provide the necessary means to facilitate the redeployment of labour.

Other aids to mobility take the form of redundancy pay­ments and Job Search and employment transfer schemes. The purpose of these schemes is to remove or reduce the financial hardship which a change of job often entails. The need for mobility shows itself when economic changes make people redundant and organised labour will usually resist such redun­dancies. Such resistance is perfectly understandable — no one likes to be told that his or her skill is no longer required. The pro­vision of adequate financial assistance during the period when a worker is seeking a new job, or undergoing retraining is one way of helping to reduce the resistance to the redeployment of labour.

Industry itself plays an important part. Most of the larg­er firms offer training to new entrants. Increased mechani­sation and the greater use of automatic and semi-automatic machinery has tended to reduce the problem of immobility. There are now far more jobs of a semiskilled nature which call for no more than a few weeks training.