Re-connecting with 'what unemployment means': employability, the experience of unemployment and priorities for policy in an era of crisis

This chapter provides an insightful appraisal of New Labour's ‘Work First’ supply-side approach to unemployment policy in new circumstances. It reconnects with earlier work by Adrian Sinfield, from a previous period of mass unemployment, to ‘recognize more fully what unemployment means’ both for those who directly experience it and for society as a whole. It reviews in detail how the concept of ‘employability’ has been interpreted and put into practice by New Labour, revealing in the process the inadequacy of this approach, especially in a period when mass unemployment requires analysis and action on its demand-side aspects. It offers an analytical framework that allows us to recognise and make sense of the full range of factors that affect the ability of individuals to access meaningful employment.