LISTENING. Kate Barker is the Chief Economic Adviser of the Confederation of British Industry, and a member of the panel of economic advisers to the British Treasury

Kate Barker is the Chief Economic Adviser of the Confederation of British Industry, and a member of the panel of economic advisers to the British Treasury. You will hear her talking about the things that will need to change if labour markets become increasingly flexible.

Ex. 1. Listen to Part One of the interview and answer the questions.

1. A 'flexible labour market' is one in which:

a. workers are able to do a variety of jobs.

b. it is easy for companies to hire non-permanent staff.

c. workers arc free to choose the hours they work.

2. What is the advantage of a flexible labour market for employers?

3. What does 'the more flexible labour market is considered to have encouraged inward investment' mean?

4. Kate Barker says that three things will have to be rethought or reconsidered if the British labour force is going to remain more flexible.

Complete the gaps:

In particular, the structure of (1)…………………………needs to be revisited, if you have people moving between employments and unemployment much more quickly. The structure of (2)……………………………needs to be revisited, if you have people no longer working for a long time for the same employer, and finally in Britain we tend to have a very high level of owner-occupation – more people (3)………………………….and they borrow a great deal of money in order to pay for that. It would be much more logical to have a big (4)………………………., if you want to have a very flexible labour market.

Ex. 2. Listen to Part Two of the interview. According to what Kate Barker says, which is the correct answer in each case?

1. In a flexible labour market, such as that in the USA,

a. unemployment falls in a downturn or recession.

b. unemployment rises in a downturn or recession.

2. In a flexible labour market

a. unemployment rises during an economic upturn.

b. temporary employment rises during an economic upturn.

c. permanent employment rises during an economic upturn.

3. In a flexible labour market, there are

a. badly-paid workers who have frequent periods of unemployment.

b. well-paid workers who have frequent periods of unemployment.

c. 10% of earners who have frequent periods of unemployment.

4. Wages are falling

a. because of the deregulation of the labour market.

b. because there is now a kind of 'underclass' of workers.

c. because of competition from Asian countries.

Ex. 3. Listen to Part Three of the interview and answer these questions.

1. What are the two measures that Kate Barker suggests governments should take to help the long-term unemployed?

2. What, according to Kate Barker, is a common attitude among employers towards long-term unemployed people?