Last week, the UK Government admitted that most of the new jobs created over the past decade have gone to immigrant workers, mainly from central and eastern european countries.
The virtues of employing immigrant workers have been debated widely in the press during the last seven days but from the point of view of many employers, the situation is a no-brainer.
For example, speaking to many North Wales hotel owners about the current situation, they admit that they are more than happy to employ well-educated, hard working and polite individuals from overseas who value their jobs within a customer focused industry.
Whilst we hear empty rhetoric such as 'British jobs for British workers' from a Prime Minister who should know better, employers are left with little option but to employ non-UK staff because they simply cannot get the same standard of local people to take up these jobs.
The employment statistics show that nearly one in three of working age adults in Wales do not have a job and an increasing number of these are aged between 16 and 30.
We are therefore in serious danger of creating an underclass of individuals who will not get on the job ladder at all within their adult lives, with all the serious social and economic implications for this country that are already becoming evident.
We will have no option but to continue to import overseas workers unless radical changes are made to motivate the thousands of young people who leave school with little prospects and to assist them onto the first rungs of the employment ladder.
And what have our politicians in Cardiff Bay done about this in the last eight years?
If the statistics are anything to go by, very little.
Whilst new jobs have been created, immigrant workers have taken up a sizeable proportion of these with the result that economic inactivity and unemployment amongst the indigenous population continues to rise.
I seriously believe that this is a social and economic timebomb waiting to go off if it is not addressed soon.
Whilst many Assembly politicians are delirious about the setting up of yet another commission to look at constitutional reform, they continue to largely ignore the major issue of having over half a million adults without a job, a situation which helps to make Wales the poorest region in the UK.
After eight years of devolved government, this is a major abdication of responsibility from those who make up our political classes. There is no longer any excuse why the issue of adult economic inactivity should not be at the forefront of policymaking during the next four years.
I am firmly a pro-devolutionist and believe Wales should have more powers. However, I believe that our politicians should focus on how the powers they already have can make a real difference in ensuring that we get more Welsh adults contributing to our economy and society rather than having to rely on immigrant workers to take up the slack in the employment market.
Surely this is what should be occupying the brightest minds in Wales and not rehashing what the Richard Commission did so well (and whose conclusions were largely ignored by the Assembly and UK Governments).
If we do not deal with the joint problems of high immigration and high economic inactivity, then the consequences for Wales in the long term could be catastrophic. Can you hear the timebomb ticking?
The virtues of employing immigrant workers have been debated widely in the press during the last seven days but from the point of view of many employers, the situation is a no-brainer.
For example, speaking to many North Wales hotel owners about the current situation, they admit that they are more than happy to employ well-educated, hard working and polite individuals from overseas who value their jobs within a customer focused industry.
Whilst we hear empty rhetoric such as 'British jobs for British workers' from a Prime Minister who should know better, employers are left with little option but to employ non-UK staff because they simply cannot get the same standard of local people to take up these jobs.
The employment statistics show that nearly one in three of working age adults in Wales do not have a job and an increasing number of these are aged between 16 and 30.
We are therefore in serious danger of creating an underclass of individuals who will not get on the job ladder at all within their adult lives, with all the serious social and economic implications for this country that are already becoming evident.
We will have no option but to continue to import overseas workers unless radical changes are made to motivate the thousands of young people who leave school with little prospects and to assist them onto the first rungs of the employment ladder.
And what have our politicians in Cardiff Bay done about this in the last eight years?
If the statistics are anything to go by, very little.
Whilst new jobs have been created, immigrant workers have taken up a sizeable proportion of these with the result that economic inactivity and unemployment amongst the indigenous population continues to rise.
I seriously believe that this is a social and economic timebomb waiting to go off if it is not addressed soon.
Whilst many Assembly politicians are delirious about the setting up of yet another commission to look at constitutional reform, they continue to largely ignore the major issue of having over half a million adults without a job, a situation which helps to make Wales the poorest region in the UK.
After eight years of devolved government, this is a major abdication of responsibility from those who make up our political classes. There is no longer any excuse why the issue of adult economic inactivity should not be at the forefront of policymaking during the next four years.
I am firmly a pro-devolutionist and believe Wales should have more powers. However, I believe that our politicians should focus on how the powers they already have can make a real difference in ensuring that we get more Welsh adults contributing to our economy and society rather than having to rely on immigrant workers to take up the slack in the employment market.
Surely this is what should be occupying the brightest minds in Wales and not rehashing what the Richard Commission did so well (and whose conclusions were largely ignored by the Assembly and UK Governments).
If we do not deal with the joint problems of high immigration and high economic inactivity, then the consequences for Wales in the long term could be catastrophic. Can you hear the timebomb ticking?
Comments
another issue no one will talk about is the long term effects of economic migration, maybe short term to fill seasonal roles is manageable, but the fact that most employers in Wales as you say are already preferring to employ foreign migrants, instead of the local population should be setting alarm bell ringing in Cardiff Bay and Westminster because in the medium and long term it will impact on those of us in well paid carers as well.
Are you talking the rest of the UK ,Northern Europe,Eastern Europe - further affield