STEPHEN DIXON’S letter to HAS (Nov 19) highlighted the difficulty Jobscentres encounter trying to place people in suitable jobs.

I’m not surprised, as we seem to be moving back to Victorian employment conditions where the prospective employee actually bought most of their equipment and tools and had minimal employment rights.

This is nothing new and continues a trend begun during the Thatcher de-industrialisation of the UK in the 1980s.

During that period I spent some time “resting” and took to wandering around Jobcentres with largely negative results.

I remember a vacancy in Bishop Auckland for a security guard. “That’s for me,” I thought until I noticed that applicants needed to have their own dog and a van.

I perhaps could have borrowed a van but our dog at that time was a badly trained mongrel terrier with poor eyesight and loose teeth.

There were also vacancies for lap dancers at the Top Hat club, in Spennymoor, but, as I was unable to climb the gym ropes at school, this was another job I had to put on the backburner.

I don’t envy today’s job seekers.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.