Birmingham Chamber urges caution on employment stats
Despite enjoying an increase in employment of 1.4% in the last quarter, the West Midlands still suffers from the second highest rate of unemployment in the UK behind London.
The rate of unemployment further increased by 0.1% between February and April this year, and it is something the Birmingham Chamber is urging local businesses to bear in mind.
Emily Stubbs, the policy and patron advisor at the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce said that to combat the rise in unemployment we must ensure that “local people are skilled and ready to take up the jobs being created in the region.”
“It is great to see that for the second month running the largest increase in employment rate over the previous quarter was seen in the West Midlands, ” said Stubbs.
“The West Midlands has the second highest unemployment figures in the UK. Over the last year the region has seen the second largest decrease in this rate of any region. However, we still have a way to go to push unemployment down in line with the national averages and we did see a very slight rise in regional unemployment this quarter. Making sure our region is up skilling local residents for the jobs available to them is a primary concern for our businesses.”
Evidence shows that over 50% of West Midlands companies experienced recruitment difficulties during the last quarter. The inability of local businesses to recruit suitably trained staff is a problem the Chamber has highlighted in its Quarterly Economic Snapshot, which explores the views of businesses of all kinds in the Chambers’ area.
