A COUNTER-INFLATIONARY JOB GUARANTEE FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM

Introduction

This policy paper proposes a permanent, voluntary Job Guarantee designed to eliminate involuntary unemployment while strengthening price stability and community wellbeing. The programme offers employment to anyone willing and able to work, replacing unemployment with a paid employment buffer that expands during downturns and contracts as private-sector hiring recovers.

The Job Guarantee functions as an automatic economic stabiliser, anchoring wages and prices through a fixed labour standard while delivering social, environmental, and macroeconomic benefits. By providing a credible floor under wages and employment conditions, the programme gives workers genuine bargaining power without triggering the wage-price spirals associated with conventional demand management.

Core Design Principles

The UK Job Guarantee is built around several key principles:

• Universality: Open to any adult willing and able to work, regardless of prior employment history or benefit status.
• Voluntary participation: Workers choose to join; the programme does not replace existing benefits or compel participation.
• Living wage: A starting wage of £15 per hour, subject to annual formula updates and triennial review.
• Local delivery: Centrally funded but locally administered, allowing communities to identify and address their own priorities.
• Non-displacement: Jobs supplement rather than replace existing public and private sector employment.

"The Job Guarantee transforms unemployment from a social crisis into a social investment, building skills, maintaining communities, and preparing workers for private sector opportunities."

How It Works

When private sector demand falls, workers who lose their jobs can move into Job Guarantee positions rather than into unemployment. This maintains their income, skills, and social connections while contributing to community needs. As the economy recovers, private employers draw workers back from the programme by offering better wages and conditions, naturally shrinking the buffer stock.

This mechanism provides genuine price stability through a labour standard rather than through unemployment and precarity. The Job Guarantee wage becomes a de facto minimum wage for the economy, but one that is always available to anyone who wants to work at that rate.

Expected Impact

The programme focuses on building social and economic capacity through better health outcomes and well-being, higher workforce participation, and reduced dependence on benefits. Implementation would begin in selected regions before expanding to national coverage.

Beyond the macroeconomic benefits, the Job Guarantee addresses community needs that currently go unmet: care work, environmental restoration, community services, and local infrastructure maintenance. These are valuable activities that markets underprovide but that communities urgently need.

Current Status

This policy paper is currently in final consultation stage, with expected publication in early 2026. The document addresses programme design, governance structures, wage-setting mechanisms, phased rollout strategy, and projected national impacts. We welcome feedback and engagement from policymakers, researchers, and community organisations.