In Britain and the US young people often have a part-time jobbut do not start work properly until they are 16 or older if they take some form of further education. The usual age for retirement is

EMPLOYMENT

Going to work

In Britain and the US young people often have a part-time job but do not start work properly until they are 16 or older if they take some form of further education. The usual age for retirement is now 65.

Americans share with the British the Protestant work ethic, a belief that working hard is good for a person. In the US people who cannot find work often feel that they have no value, and parents believe that the best way to help their children become responsible adults is to encourage them to work hard. In Britain, people who complain about having to work may be accused of sponging (= living on money from the state). But the work ethic is less strong now in Britain, perhaps because jobs are less secure and many people feel less committed to a particular company.

The labour market

About 131 million Americans have jobs, and around 5% of these moonlight (= have a second job). The British labour force is about 27 million, over half of which are white-collar workers (= people with office jobs) or professionals. Blue-collar workers, workers in factories, on building sites, etc., often have difficulty staying in work.

In many American families, the man is still the breadwinner (= the person who supports the family), but the number of women in employment has doubled since the 1960s. In about half of all families both the mother and the father work. In Britain, women are nearly 50% of the workforce, and form the majority of part-time workers. Some jobs traditionally done by women, such as secretarial work and nursing, still attract more women than men, though discrimination (= different treatment on grounds of sex, race, etc.) is illegal. Most top jobs still go to men. Some women complain of having to do the second shift, to spend the evening cooking and cleaning, even though many men believe in principle in sharing the housework.

Most people find jobs through advertisements in newspapers or, in Britain, at Jobcentres. Some register with an employment agency. Companies looking for senior staff may approach people working for another company, a practice known as headhunting. Many people choose to be self-employed (= to have their own business) or to work freelance for several employers.

Pay and conditions

People who work in offices have a five-day week and are often said to have a nine-to-five job. In fact many office workers begin work earlier or finish later. Many work flexitime, a system that lets them decide their own hours. In the US people are expected to work 40 hours, often more, and are not usually paid for the 30 minutes or so they spend eating lunch. People in senior positions often work much longer hours. In Britain, many people with a nine-to-five job work only a 35-hour week and their 8-hour day includes a lunch break. In shops and factories the average working week, including overtime (= extra work), is about 45 hours. Factory workers and those in the service sector (= shops public transport, etc.) usually do shift work, and their working hours vary from week to week.

Most blue-collar workers are paid by the hour. Their pay (BrE wages) may be higher if they work at night or on public holidays; night work, for instance, may pay time and a half (= one and a half times the normal hourly rate). White-collar workers and professionals usually get a salary. In most industries there is a big gap between the pay of senior managers and that of the workers. An increasing number of people are unhappy with this situation. In the US there has for a long time been a minimum wage, and this has recently been introduced in Britain.

Benefits add to the value of a job. These include pension plans, childcare allowances, and discounts on goods produced by the company, and profit-sharing schemes which pay employees more money when the business does well. In the US the most important benefit is a health plan (= health insurance).

Americans typically get a two-week vacation, and around 10 holidays during the year. Employees who have worked for a company for a long time may get more vacation. Those in low-paid jobs may get none at all. Most British people get three or four weeks paid leave a year, plus bank holidays.

There are strict laws in Britain and the US about working conditions, the number of hours that employees can be required to work, how often they must take a break, and what must be done to protect their safety. Many workers belong to trade unions (AmE labor unions), which provide support for workers in disputes with employers.

Job security

The US labour market is very flexible. It is easy to hire and fire people, and so companies can react quickly to economic problems by downsizing (= getting smaller) and lying off employees (= taking away their jobs). Americans believe that the government should be involved as little as possible in business, and that this will make the economy strong. But this idea has made it hard to get laws passed that would protect workers' jobs.

In Britain people rarely stay in the same job for more than a few years. Many office workers and professionals expect to have job satisfaction (= to enjoy their job and feel it is worth doing) and often change jobs in search of something better. Other people, however, are forced to look for a new job because they have been made redundant (= told that they are no longer required). For them, finding a new job may be difficult and as a result many people become unemployed.

Unemployment figures are an indication of the state of a country's economy and are a politically sensitive issue. In the mid-1990s Britain's jobless total was around two million, approximately 8% of the workforce. Of these, 46% of men and 28% of women were long-term unemployed (= out of work for more than a year).

The rate of unemployment in the US is around 6%. The flexible labour market means that many people who lose their job get another within about 15 weeks. But African Americans and Hispanics have much higher rates of unemployment, and may stay unemployed for longer.

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