Saturday, April 28, 2012

Erosion of skilled labour: U.K. Edition

The articles subtitle says it all: A study by sociologists has revealed a sharp decline in the performance ability of Britain's lap dancers since the financial crash of 2008.


Telegraph (U.K.) 12 April 2012 (hat tip: MR)

The study by Teela Sanders and Kate Hardy from Leeds University warns of "de-skilling" across the industry. Dr Sanders said many dancers had "never even used a pole".
Researchers carried out a survey of 200 lap dancers, the largest study of its kind in the UK, it was reported.
Dr Sanders said there had been a "real change" to the "aesthetics of the dancers" as well as "the skills of flirting and chatting".
I have not read the study, but I gather from the comments at MR (see hat tip) the problem is an influx of new “talent” from the ranks of the previously employed elsewhere.


I used to work with people that work in the evening as bouncers at these clubs. They are not a happy environment. The typical club in the United States (and in the U.K. per the article) works a little like a beauty parlor – the service provider pays a “rent” to work, and keeps any overage on tips, drink splits, etcetera.


Also knowing an finance type who did an informal survey of the market, the money earned is pretty much in line with the typical performers education level – and this was before the current downturn. As with many entertainers, a very small percentage (the headline acts) draw a disproportionally large percentage of the industry income.

4 comments:

Degringolade said...

You know, sometimes the press writes things that I consider to be devastatingly funny. How can you top this one?

Having done similar studies, I threw out the data when a friend pointed out to me that I didn't properly control the experiment by controlling for the age of the "customer". It would appear that young men, in their prime and horny best did not hold the high standards that jaded age allowed.

There is also the availability and use of alcohol issue.

Just saying

BTW...if it is OK with you, would you please change my link to:

http://desgringueler.wordpress.com/

I think that I will be writing there for a while on a weekly basis, probably Thursdays.

John

russell1200 said...

The age and social status of the clientel probably goes a long way to dictating earnings. But the supply of workers would still be relevant.

I'll change your link. Good luck with wordpress. LOL

Anonymous said...

I am mostly changing because I am trying to freshen the whole venture. Sometimes blogging seems a bit stale. I think that I am going through on of those times.

Who knows. I'll still keep watching yours.

russell1200 said...

Thanks,

It helps to have a broad range of subjects you are interested in writing about. Otherwise you are going to be talking about your personal life alot, or run out of subject matter quickly.

All the big prepper sites tend to have huge numbers of guest writings, and another type tends to be a lifestyle format. The life style format is the most fun if the people are little crazy and don't take themselves too seriously.