The web of Whitehall bodies created to close the UK’s skills gap with competitors is of “mind blowing” complexity, changes to frequently, and is becoming too difficulty to understand, senior executives charged with delivering the policy told MPs on Wednesday.

Chris Humphries, chief executive of the Commission for Employment and Skills suggested the latest shake-up had made the system impenetrable. “I don’t think there’s an employer in the land who understands what the new systems are,” he said

The maze of government skills bodies has changed with alarming frequency, with critics claiming organisations do not have enough time to establish credibility and competence.

The most recent change was announced in March, and includes the 2010 dismantling of the Learning and Skills Council, the £11bn ($22bn) quango responsible for vocational learning in England. Its functions are to be assumed by local authorities and three new national groups.

Tom Bewick, chief executive of Creative and Cultural Skills – one of 25 “sector skills councils” – commented on the constant appearance and disappearance of organisations and the consequent merry-go-round of job changes. He said, “The talk around town is: what job have you got, where are you going to be?”

Teresa Sayers, chief executive of the Financial Services Skills Council said international employers were “not just confused but extremely frustrated. Understanding the UK context is absolutely mind-blowing for them.”

Speaking before the Commons committee on innovation, universities, science and skills Mr Humpries told MPs that “we’re going backwards, not forwards” in the international skills league table compared with other rich countries.

Mr Bewick suggested other countries were better at concentrating on getting the right results out of their skills systems, because their attention was not diverted on tinkering with the apparatus of government. “When you look abroad, you see far more cross-party consensus that it isn’t the institutions that need to change, it’s the outcomes,” he said.

When quizzed about how many skills bodies there were in Britain, Mr Humphries said: “Honestly, I haven’t got the foggiest idea,” but estimated there were “many hundreds”.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said the latest shake-up created a “streamlined” system of more specialised agencies.

For the fourth consecutive month the number of people claiming unemployment benefit has risen, providing further evidence that the stuttering economy has begun to affect the jobs market.

According to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, the claimant count rose by 9,000 to 819,300 last month. The last time the figures rose for four months running was two years ago.

Total unemployment has also risen for the second consecutive month from 38,000 to 1.64m during the three months to the end of April, marking the highest level for more than a year.

David Kern, economic adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce, said that the figures conveyed “serious warnings that the economic outlook is worsening”.

He added: “Given the expected slowdown in economic growth, it seems very likely that unemployment will increase further over the next year … Against this background, expectations in some quarters that UK interest rates will have to go up soon are unjustified.”

The number of people in employment rose by 76,000 to a record high of 29.55m. Stephen Timms, employment minister, said that this showed there are still “plenty of jobs available for people looking for work”.

However, Geoffrey Dicks, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland said the rise in jobs was not enough to provide work for all the increased number of people entering the country.

Nigel Meager, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, added: “Fears that the current economic instability could cause a downturn in the labour market are now beginning to be realised. In the wake of high- profile job losses in the finance and construction sectors … [the figures also revealed] sharp reductions in vacancies in some sectors, such as manufacturing, hospitality and finance.”

Statistics from the British Retail Consortium earlier this week raised the prospect that retail workers could well “be the next to join the dole queue”, Mr Meager said

John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said however that the fact employers were still actively employing staff, and there was no sign of redundancies indicated that the job market was “cooling only moderately”.

Mr Philpott said that the finance and business services sector remained “in the eye of the storm, shedding 20,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year … But shops, hotels and restaurants are suffering too and are now in a period of jobs standstill.”

As the City bonus season came to an end the annual rise in average earnings including bonuses dipped by 0.2 percentage points to 3.8 per cent during the three months to April.

The increase in average earnings excluding bonuses was only 0.1 percentage points higher, at 3.9 percent.

It seems that the £50 billion bailout of the UK money markets will not be enough on its own to see the economy through the worst. In an unprecedented attack on corporate governance in the UK, the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King has warned the banks that they will need to play their part to ensure that the UK economy does not take yet another turn for the worse. So what is happening?

While there was a flurry of relief that the government had pulled off something of a coup with the injection of £50 billion into the markets, this case is slowly unraveling. We are still seeing mortgage lending slumping month on month, house prices have fallen over the last 12 months for the first time for many years and many mortgage lenders are placing ceilings on the maximum mortgages which they will authorise. The situation is not getting any better in the short term!

It would be unfair to suggest that the government thought the affect would be immediate but the much expected flurry of relief has yet to materialise in the market place. Banks are still running to shareholders for billions of pounds to shore up their balance sheets and many of the smaller mortgage lenders are going to the wall. As many people suggested at the time of the £50 billion cash injection, this is one storm which we will have to ride out and one which will get much worse before it gets better. So what about that tax payers cash?

The £50 billion of tax payers money which was introduced to the markets is still very safe with the banks being asked to provide collateral much higher than the amount of money they are looking to raise. There is also the further safe guard that the banks have committed to covering any potential loses on the government’s asset swap. Even if one of the smaller player or a larger player was to go under, the industry itself would be forced to foot the bill just to ensure public confidence remained high.

There has been little news of late with regards to unemployment figures but these are set to rocket over the coming months. There is often a time lag between the economy falling and jobs being lost, although it will not be long before the bad news starts to flow. We are hearing news over the last few days that some of the larger budget clothing Groups in the UK are under severe financial strain with MK One recently put up for sale.

This is very much just the tip of the iceberg and there will be substantially more bad news before we start to improve. The Bank of England may well be forced to reconsider their current stance on interest rates and inflation and look to cut rates in line with their US counterparts. When you know that £50 billion is not going to bail out your economy you know that you are very much in trouble!

A report released today claims that of the 3 million of the UK population who take on seasonal work from home, the vast majority will be earning less than the minimum wage.  This is the time of year when companies involved in postal campaigns and similar issues will look to recruit those desperate for additional cash for the festive period.

While it is actually illegal to employ anyone at a rate less than the national minimum wage, the problem is that these people are desperate for that extra few pounds and will do just about anything.  It is a sad indictment of the UK business world when people are paid literally a few pounds an hour for such menial and time consuming activities.  Lets not forget that these are vital part of many mail shots throughout the country, and due to the low pay offered the “employers” are able to pocket more profit for themselves.

So how can you fight back?

Unfortunately for every person who decides to drop out because of the low pay there are another 10 ready to take their place.  While many were initially attracted to the working from home philosophy, because in the main it compliments their life style which may involve child care etc, it is not easy going.

How do the companies get away with paying an illegal rate?

While the laws were initially set up to avoid situations such as the ones we are covering, employers are able to get away with it by publishing unrealistic hourly targets for output, which when put into practice may take substantially longer to complete – resulting in a reduced hourly rate from the one published.

While the vast number of the 3 million UK residents who take on such work are under paid, there are still some reputable companies out there who will pay you a fair rate for a fair days work.  They make take a little finding, and they may offer a different kind of work, but they are there.