Action needed on skills if employment decline is to be halted

The West Midlands needs to urgently address the region’s skills gap if it is to remain competitive and provide firms with the workers they will need to support growth.

The call came from business leaders responding to disappointing employment figures that shows that region now has the highest rate of unemployment in the country.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 155,000 people unemployed in the region at the end of November. The figure represents a 6,000 rise on the June to August quarter.

This gives the West Midlands an unemployment rate of 5.5%, the worst anywhere in the UK.

The rate of employment (72.6%) is only marginally higher than the North East (72.2%), which is the worst in England.

The West Midlands remains a long way behind the national unemployment average of 4.3% and suggests urgent action is needed if it is to halt the decline.

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC) said much of the problem could be traced back to the widening skills gap.

“These figures need to be a wake-up call for the region,” he said.

“They show one of the region’s greatest strengths: that we are creating record numbers of new jobs in the West Midlands. But they also throw into sharp relief the big challenge: ensuring that local people are skilled for and able to access these jobs.

“The region’s leaders and stakeholders need to fundamentally shift up a gear in efforts to tackle unemployment. Businesses have a key role to play in ensuring they communicate what skills and qualifications they need.

“The North East unemployment rate has dropped significantly in recent years from the highest in the UK so stakeholders in our region may be able to learn lessons from their experience.”

Nationally, he said the Government needed to make it easier for employers to invest in upskilling their staff. In particular by reducing the administrative burden that reformed apprenticeship funding placed on small businesses, and to ensure that levy-paying businesses were able to make the best use of the Apprenticeship Levy.

Elsewhere, unemployment in Coventry and Warwickshire continues to flat-line, despite strong business confidence heading into 2018.

There was a small rise across the city and county in the month to December, with the claimant count going up from 3,860 to 3,875 in Coventry and from 4,320 to 4,380 in Warwickshire.

This was despite firms in the area enjoying a strong end to 2017.

Louise Bennett, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Business confidence is strong and there is certainly a need among many, many businesses across the patch to grow their workforce.

“Our members told us throughout last year that a skills shortage and a skills gap were two of fundamental issues that were making recruitment more difficult.

“This region is in a very strong position economically and, as more and more jobs are created, we must ensure that we have the people with the right level of skills to fill those posts and that business has enough available space to house them.”