There's a particular UK problem here, in that Britain, from the mid-eighties through the 'nineties, developed a mass dumping-ground for the long-term unemployed in the Incapacity Benefit rolls (see Soundbite Statistics). It was a great wheeze as long as it lasted, because it allowed the government to claim amazing results on the employment scene (IB beneficiaries are not counted as officially unemployed), and, especially, to have got rid of... long-term unemployment.

It couldn't be hidden for ever, though. The OECD, usually so full of praise for the UK's competitive economy, has done some repeated finger-wagging about it, and under Broon of the Manse the government decided to get some "back-to-work" stuff going. See that nonsense about "fast-tracking" people into jobs "we know exist". The problem is that most of the long-term unemployed on IB are in wiped-out former industrial regions where the jobs don't exist - and these are mostly people whose financial and psychological energy won't run to a relocation in South-East England. Thirty years of concentration of the economy on London, aka the Anglo Disease, have taken their toll. The way to get people "back to work", is to create jobs they can realistically take on where they are.