Birmingham’s employment growth set to outperform other major cities

Birmingham will this year outperform other large cities such as Manchester when it comes to employment growth, with more people will be employed within the city in 2019 Q3 than in the same period last year, a report suggests.

The UK Powerhouse study by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) predicts what the impact of Brexit will have on the economy.

Assuming Theresa May gets her withdrawal agreement through Parliament, the report says Birmingham’s year-on-year employment growth in Q3 2019 will reach 1.6%.

It adds that employment headcount in the city was 581,000 during Q3 2018 and that this will increase to 590,100 in the third quarter of this year.

It also expects annual GVA growth in Birmingham up to Q3 2019 to be 1.4%, whilst in the same period last year it was 1.3%.

The report says that Birmingham is set to experience the sixth fastest employment growth out of the Powerhouse cities by Q3 2019.

Birmingham is currently the subject of significant infrastructure investment, with the construction of HS2 and the Commonwealth Games in 2022. These developments have already begun to attract businesses to the area, with HSBC recently relocating the headquarters of their business bank to the city.

Chris Rawstron, partner at Irwin Mitchell in Birmingham, said: “The overall impacts of Brexit on the West Midlands in the long term prove difficult to predict and although the report says that the economy will grow more slowly following Brexit, there are some positive signs in relation to employment levels.

“There are challenges ahead and also many opportunities and we are working hard with our clients to support them and provide proactive advice so that they are well-prepared for the future.”

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