1. Peter Warburton and Roger Bootle argue that job insecurity and excess supply of labour are the dominant trends in the labour market.
How will this situation affect workers' decisions to engage in major consumer purchases?
2. If this pattern of employment continues over the long term, what new strategies and skills will workers have to develop?
3. Using supply and demand theory, explain how labour "priced itself into work" during the mid-1980s.
4. The article suggests that part of the reduction in employment can be explained by corporate downsizing. What is downsizing and why has it become so popular in large firms?
5. The article indicates that a further reason for a reduction in employment is the poverty trap. What could be done to reduce the effects of the poverty trap and get people back into work?
