Take a look at this short video clip from a guy who’s one of 600 employees who’ve been made redundant by Vestas and is struggling to find work. He’s reading an advert from Job Centre Plus, talking about hoping to get a job in manufacturing, bemoaning his lack of training, the fact he hasn’t been paid any redundancy money and so on. He’s really downbeat.

Then look at this clip from a hotelier.

Notice anything? They’re both on the Isle of Wight. The hotelier says it’s been a good summer for tourism and many will be ploughing some of the profit back into the economy by refurbishing their properties over the autumn and winter months.

Hello??? That means work, doesn’t it? Unemployment is up by over 1,500 on the same period last year yet the unemployed guy looks to be fit. How many plumbers, electricians decorators and painters that will benefit from that increase in work do you think might need an extra pair of hands? And what might that lead to?

Not knowing the island particularly well, I Googled it and did some research. I couldn’t find one combination of towns that took more than 40 minutes to get to and from by car. If the unemployed guy doesn’t have his own transport I’m sure he could get a car share or maybe even do a rental at out of season rates.

And, at a push, the Fishbourne ferry to Portsmouth on the mainland takes under 10 minutes… what jobs might be there?

We’ll say it again: It’s time to get creative!