Unemployment shows further improvement
UNEMPLOYMENT in the West Midlands has shown a further improvement, with latest figures indicating dole queues shrank by 19,000 in the latest quarter.
The data from the Office for National Statistics shows 221,000 people were out of work in the region during the three months between November 2013 and January 2014, down from 240,000 for the August to October quarter. This gives the region an unemployment rate of 8.2%.
The fall adds weight to recent surveys which have suggested that employers are looking to grow their workforces as orders increase.
While the decline is significant, the overall rate is still well above the national average of 7.2%. Nationally there are 2.32m out of work, a decline of 63,000 on the August to October levels.
West Midlands business leaders welcomed the region’s improved figures, claiming it was further positive news for the area.
However, Tim Pile, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce said there was still more to be done to improve skills levels.
“There are still structural problems and business surveys conducted by the chamber have consistently shown that skilled positions are the hardest to recruit to,” he said.
“One of the key problems is the lack of deep interaction between schools and business. Both sectors often act in silos.”
He said this was why the chamber had collaborated with all nine Further Education colleges in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP area in order to forge a new Further Education Consortium focussed on skills levels.
“The chambers have also called on Government to introduce a £100m Future Workforce Grant scheme to assist businesses which hire long-term unemployed young people, and to support accredited Chambers of Commerce across the country to provide objective advice to employers about how they can use apprenticeships,” he added.
