The majority of people living in The Valleys believe there are not enough jobs in the area, with more than 83% calling for more well-paid work.
The findings come as the Wales TUC launches a campaign today, calling for better jobs in Valleys communities that are caught in a “perfect storm of deindustrialisation, recession and austerity”.
The TUC will present a case to the Welsh Government to create “real employment” across Caerphilly County Borough, as well as Rhondda, Cynon Valley, Pontypridd, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil.
Results of a poll conducted by the TUC in August shows that 59% of respondents believe there’s not enough work in their community, while 44% believe they are forced to travel too far to work.
Almost 25% of people believe employers are not offering enough working hours, while 15% said bosses are exploiting workers.
The TUC is calling on the Welsh Government to use new powers that allow it to reserve public contracts for organisations which support disadvantaged people into work.
In a claim that the “free market has failed” The Valleys, Wales TUC General Secretary, Martin Mansfield, said more should be done to help the long term unemployed, young people, lone parents, disabled people and those with no qualifications into well-paid work.
Mr Mansfield said: “Better jobs closer to home sounds a simple demand but we have backed it up with carefully thought out proposals and evidence.
“The free market has failed valleys people for decades and where there is market failure there is a need for governments to intervene.
“Of course there is disadvantage in other parts of Wales, but the area suffering the largest number and the highest percentage of deprivation is the valleys.
“These are not just economic statistics, these are people without jobs, families living with poverty, whole communities blighted and held back.
“We want Welsh government to use the new powers it has to deliver real opportunities and decent work where the need is greatest.
“Without focussed, co-ordinated and practical intervention to help kick start the valleys economy, Wales will never make real economic progress as a nation – and what’s more we won’t deserve to.
“Wales can’t prosper while the valleys struggle.”
The Better Jobs, Closer to Home campaign calls for “significant public spending projects to be used to ensure that people shut out of the labour market are able to find decent work in the heart of their own communities”.
It also seeks to highlight the hardship of carers juggling with paid employment and the “gruelling cost of working on zero hours contracts”.
The Welsh Government said that unemployment has fallen in the Valleys since the last Assembly Election , with 20,000 more people employed than in 2011.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We agree with the Wales TUC about the need to ensure that The Valleys in Wales are vibrant places to live and work and support the ethos of their campaign.
“We will be discussing their specific proposals on procuring public sector contracts at the Council for Economic Renewal today.
“It’s encouraging that the economic picture in Wales is improving, inward investment is at record levels and the latest labour market statistics show a continuing positive trend with Wales seeing the largest rate of increase in employment of any part of the UK.
“We’ve also seen significant falls in the levels of economic inactivity, which is down 1.2% on the quarter and has continued to outperform the rest of the UK over the past year.”
More `Top Down` proposals, `Task Forces` set up, high salaries and expenses paid to more Welsh Establishment individuals that no one will have heard of, probably chaired by someone who has just finished one Quango Job and is looking for another, or, a retiring AM leaving with a generous pension, And, at the end of it nothing or very little done which can be judged a sucess by the Welsh Public who will be paying for it. Synical? Me?, don`t be daft.
For once I actually agree with you. The Welsh government is clueless when it comes to do with anything like jobs or the economy. Top-down ‘task forces’ are expensive whilst producing no real results.
The best thing that can be done is improve the transport into Cardiff to allow people in the valleys and Caerphilly to commute. Caerphilly is never going to have high paying jobs so the people after them must commute. Can you imagine Admiral Insurance suddenly deciding to up sticks and move everything to Caerphilly? I think not. It’s financial directors, actuarial, and other skilled professionals will remain at its HQ in Cardiff.
Quite right too. I am one of the long term unemployed who,unlike some people,actually WANTS to work but finds the current JobCentre network as unfit for purpose. I agree with what the Islwyn MP said about them-they should be scrapped.
These people miss the point. Better paid work requires better skills. Caerphilly is not exactly a haven for the world’s brightest people. The people with skills move out of the valleys or commute to Cardiff every day for higher-paying jobs.
It makes sense for companies offering the good jobs to base themselves in busy cities, capital cities, or places where there are good transport links and highly skilled workforce; Caerphilly is none of them.
Caerphilly is never going to have high paying jobs as there is no incentive for companies to base themselves in Caerphilly. What does Caerphilly have that Cardiff or London does not? Answer: nothing!
Caerphilly is always going to be a of living hub where people commute, it will never be a working hub with lots of different jobs at a high wage rate.
Caerffili is not going to attract many well paid jobs any time in the near future. My last job in the Caerffili area was in 1986. It is unrealistic for people to think that local jobs will be provided, they simply won’t.
The Welsh Assembly says, “unemployment has fallen in the Valleys since the last Assembly Election , with 20,000 more people employed than in 2011”. Oh really? How many of those now listed as employed work in the retail sector, part time and low paid and how many of them are working 35 hours a week or more in well paid employment? I would love to know but will wait in vain for any figures.
Councillor Richard Williams is correct of course but only if one considers a
`look back`, at well paid jobs which have disappeared from the jobs
market, they will not be replicated in the same form.
But this proposal does present the potential opportunity for local
authorities, the Trade Unions, and the Welsh Assembly to concentrate
efforts to attract industries which could attract well paid job
opportunities for local people, but, it may be a `Chicken and Egg`
situation, for instance are there sufficient vocational training,
and, higher education opportunities available to train local
candidates for such jobs?, or, would it attract further immigration of
already highly trained people into the Valleys further fuelling the
housing planning scramble?.
Many individual local Councillors in the Valley are already actively
involved in standing shoulder to shoulder with their constituents on
the issues of poverty in the families they represent. These proposals
are welcome in their intentions but will be tested by these
Councillors in their effect, and like infrastructure projects the
effect of the proposals, if they are to be measured in success, will
take many years to come about. More effort is needed by the Assembly
and Local Councils to come up with `Micro` proposals to tackle local
poverty, whilst at the same time working on longer term good, well
paid jobs, opportunities.
The Welsh Assembly will have to come up with some inventive ways, which
hitherto it has not done, to attract organisations and private firms
into the valley with jobs for LOCAL people. Perhaps it may like to
consider the following suggestions, which have worked elsewhere.
The Local Health Boards – Bring in a business Tsar to look at ways of
creating jobs and business opportunities in research and development
which embraces new medical technologies, Cancer Diagnosis methods,
and new treatments for all sorts of diseases and illnesses, combine
these efforts with Universities, the `infrastructure for doing this
already exists in both the Local Hospitals and Universities. Attract
both UK and Foreign investment for creating a postgraduate quasi
university campus which could create many well paid job
opportunities.
Come up with attractive business proposals for the opportunity which targets
and attracts premium internet providers into the Valleys
Make it an attractive proposition for multi national Pharmaceutical companies
to consider relocating to the valleys drawing its highly paid staff
from the postgraduate stream created by local health boards and
Universities.
Creating opportunities, at an early stage in the development and construction,
of the Swansea Bay Barrage, for engineering and construction
companies to locate or re-locate here in the Valleys
I would like to hear what the views of the Trade Unions are, I would also
like to hear the views of the combined intellect, on their plans, for
attracting high paid good quality, long lasting, job opportunities
from AM`s Ministers, and the Welsh Civil Service charged with these
responsibilities.
There was a private company willing to invest in the valleys and provide jobs. It would have invested in communities – it was open cast mining. The sort of jobs that have the skill set available in the valleys.
But then the reality hit home. Work is hard. Let’s turn it down.
There are thousands of people who commute from cardiff up into the valley everyday.
News flash. Italian company sets up a factory in Blackwood paying low wages and employs 75% or more foreign workers. Local boys start on a Monday and leave on a Thursday because the works to hard.
Pete the investigative reporter determines that local boys only want good, easy and well paying jobs.