West Midlands unemployment rate below national average

UNEMPLOYMENT in the West Midlands rose again during the last quarter although less than the national average.

The number of unemployed people in the region for the three months between August and October stood at 243,000, an increase of 0.1% (4,000) on the previous quarter. The regional unemployment rate now stands at 9.2%.

Nationally, 2.64m are now unemployed, an increase of 0.4% (128,000) on the previous quarter. The national rate stands at 8.3%.

Despite the regional increase, the West Midlands is still behind the North East (11.7%) and Yorkshire and The Humber (9.5%) as the areas with the highest unemployment rates.

The national unemployment rate is now the highest since 1996 and the number of people without work is at its highest since 1994.

Youth unemployment remains a concern. The number of jobless in the 16-24 age bracket increased by 54,000 during the quarter and now stands at 1.03m – a rate of 22%.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group said finding effective ways to promote employment would be easier if the bureaucratic burden on firms was eased.

“Cutting red tape is the only way that we will tackle unemployment,” it said.

Chamber president Mike Ward said: “In a world where money just isn’t available to throw at the creation of jobs, gaining business confidence by making it easier to do business is paramount.”

A recent survey by British Chambers of Commerce concluded employment legislation was hampering growth.  Of its members, 82% of firms said they found regulations around sickness absence burdensome, while 73% said the removal of the Default Retirement Age in April would be detrimental to their business.

Mike Ashton, spokesman for West Midlands Chambers of Commerce, said:  “Regulations are a huge burden on larger firms at a time when we should be encouraging businesses to expand. The government must act quickly to ensure that businesses can concentrate on generating the growth which will help create jobs.”

Louise Bennett, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said a local fall in unemployment was positive news.

“A fall in unemployment in Coventry and Warwickshire is good to see but the overall figure is still higher than any of us would like,” she said.

“It is imperative that freeing up companies to employ more staff remains at the forefront of the Government’s agenda going into the New Year.

“That means being freed of the shackles of red tape and making it simpler to take on new people.”

John Rider, chairman of West Midlands IoD, said: “Once again these figures are very disappointing but not unexpected. It is unfortunately going to get worse before it gets better. Until business and consumers regain some confidence we are faced with this spiral.”

To tackle youth unemployment he said businesses had to work with universities to develop new opportunities, while expanding apprenticieship programmes would also help ease the problem.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said while unemployment was up, the picture was showing signs of levelling out.

“There has obviously been an unwelcome increase in unemployment since the summer but these latest figures show some signs that the labour market is stabilising,” he said.

“The number of people in employment is higher than last month’s published figure and the number of unemployed people is steadying.  Encouragingly this is also the case for young people not in education.”