Are most current job vacancies in the private sector offering no measurable social or economic value?
UK job vacancies have fallen to a five-year low of around 707,000 as of mid-2026, with smaller private firms citing rising costs as the main reason for reduced hiring. Private sector pay growth lags the public sector, while sectors such as health, social care, construction and education show persistent demand for roles that contribute directly to economic output and public services. Concepts of job value remain subjective, with studies finding only 5-8% of workers overall view their own roles as useless, far below claims of widespread pointlessness.
5 Opinions
We do not need more duct tapers, box tickers and unnecessary 5 steps of middle management. They are not contributory jobs for society, they are psychologically harming, they are only there so the employer meets the employee compliance requirements and employee threshold milestones. Get rid of bullshit jobs.
There is no budget for ‘busy work’ in the private sector. Businesses need customers to keep the lights on, the value of their products or service is determined by how much the customer is actually willing to buy it for. Socialists will never understand that reality because they can only destroy wealth.
Every job has some kind of value and sounds to me to be very socialist.
Question with thesis, I believe, that somehow public sector is better than private one. Rubbish. All jobs have economic value, salary paid by employer, taxes paid by employee and employer are the most basic. I would have to read definition of social value to comment on it but smell like some socialists invention, pointless and without sense (modern education😒).
Getting a job IS the social/economic benefit. It doesn't have to be "meaningful" in the sense of the universe or anything. I watch a video of someone mentioning about not wanting to work because of this, I couldn't believe it.