And it will get worse there because the US government actually does not care about unemployment. You can determine that from the fact that they would not extend unemployment benefits deciding that during the worst downturn in a century that those unemployed are lazy and feckless. Here at least they appreciate that it is a cost that we must bear.

I try not too moan about it too much as we can manage okay without my wife working and, as you say, things are far better for us in general than they were for our predecessors, but at the same time, I just think it could be sorted out a bit better without too much trouble.

As I've said before, I don't want to get too daily mail about it, but surely my poor, white, mostly second home owned county would be better served by a crèche than an equal opportunities officer on 40k a year. That's my council tax paying for that.

That really should be done by HR as part of their recruitment process. No need for a specialist to do that job. Yes a waste of money.