At the end of November last year, the government announced plans to boost employment levels, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer declaring that Britain ‘simply isn’t working’. The statistics reinforce his statement. Five million people of working age are now classed as ‘economically inactive’. One in eight young people is a NEET – not in education, employment, or training.
In some of our big cities, a fifth of the population is living on a medley of out-of-work benefits, while tens of thousands of job vacancies remain unfilled. Of course, there are those who are legitimately unfit for work, but many more simply believe that work is an optional extra and something to be avoided.
One thing is for certain: all this wasted human potential is tragic, even before factoring in the crippling financial cost to the nation. If ever there were a time for Christians to reaffirm the role of work and the value of it to the individual, then it is now. It may also be the time to reflect on our own attitude to work in the light of God’s Word.
