West Midlands shows largest annual fall in unemployment levels
UNEMPLOYMENT in the West Midlands has continued its downward trend – and has fallen by more than any other UK region during the past 12 months, new figures have shown.
The Office for National Statistics said that unemployment for the West Midlands stood at 203,000 for the February to April period – a rate of 7.5%. The figure represents a 19,000 fall on the November 2013 to January 2014 period, when the rate was 8.2%.
Since the February to April period last year, unemployment in the region has fallen by 57,000 – a rate of 1.9% and the best performance anywhere in the UK.
The latter statistic earned the praise of Employment Minister Esther McVey, who said: “As the economy grows, businesses are feeling increasingly confident about creating jobs, meaning many thousands more people are in work.”
Business leaders in the region have also welcomed the fall.
Tim Pile, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce said: “The downward trend in unemployment is good news for the region and there is a lot of positive news coming from our members.
“There are a number of large scale developments in the pipeline which will create more jobs, the NEC Casino development, Birmingham New Street Gateway, the National Arboretum in Alrewas, and the Birmingham Airport runway extension.
“So we need to ensure that the region’s population has the right skills and qualifications to take advantage of these opportunities.”
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for learning and skills Ben Adams said: “In Staffordshire, we have been working hard to increase opportunities for in the engineering and technology sectors by making sure people here have the right skills to meet the ever growing demand from employers in the county.
“We are doing this through building strong links between education providers, businesses and councils and have established an education trust in our LEP area. We were also selected as one of just three LEP areas nationally to run a skills pilot which demonstrates our commitment and that of our partners.”
He said work to fit out a new engineering and automotive hub in Tamworth in the former Torc Vocational Centre had started and this would bring new learning facilities to people of all ages, including young people.
Louise Bennett, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said getting more young people into work or training remained a priority.
“Through CWT – the chamber’s training arm – we are delivering more apprenticeships across our patch than any other organisation and we are also working on a pan-European basis to help young, unemployed people to find opportunities to establish businesses of their own.
“It is vital that the hard work continues. The unemployment figures have been falling but nobody should become complacent and lose sight of the fact that reducing youth unemployment remains a major task that requires innovation and effort across the board.”
Nationally, unemployment fell 161,000 for the February to April period compared with November to January. There are now 2.16m people unemployed – a rate of 6.6%.
