West Midlands sees largest fall in unemployment rate

THE latest labour market statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the unemployment rate in the West Midlands is falling faster than anywhere else in the country.

Figures covering the March-May period show there were 202,000 people unemployed in the region, 22,000 less than in the previous quarter.

However, it is only 1,000 less than the 203,000 figure released in June.

The new figure represents 7.4% of the workforce, 0.8% down on the previous quarter. However, this is still significantly above the national average of 6.5%.

Minister for employment Esther McVey said: “With the West Midlands seeing the largest annual fall in the unemployment rate of any UK region, the resilience of the country during the downturn is being rewarded.”

At the national level, ONS data shows nearly a million more people are in work compared to a year ago.
 
The annual rise in employment of 929,000 sees the employment rate rising to 73.1%, equal to the record high in 2005.

There are now 30.6m people in work, 1.8m more than in 2010.
 
Unemployment saw the biggest annual fall for nearly two decades, dropping by 383,000, while the unemployment rate fell further to 6.5%, the lowest since the end of 2008.

Job vacancies rose again, up 117,000 over the past year bringing the number of vacancies in the UK economy to 648,000.

Mark Smith, regional chairman at accountancy firm PwC in the Midlands, said:

“These latest figures are positive as they show that across the Midlands employment continues to rise and the unemployment rate has fallen back.

“The East Midlands and West Midlands both experienced the largest decreases in the unemployment rate in the UK on the previous period, with the unemployment rate now at 7.4% in the West Midlands and 5.6% in the East Midlands.

“However, the figures also show that across the UK average earnings growth has fallen to just 0.3% in the three months to May compared to a year earlier. This has opened up a widening gap with consumer price inflation, which is now running at 1.9%. After briefly starting to rise again earlier this year, real average earnings growth has now dived back into negative territory.

“There are some special factors here relating to the distortions to the timing of bonuses in early 2013, associated with the fall in the top rate of income tax in April 2013. In addition there are some compositional effects related to stronger jobs growth in relatively lower pay sectors such as retail, hotels and restaurants and support services.

“But the underlying trend is still for a recovery that is rich in jobs, but less strong in productivity and pay. This needs to change over the next couple of years if the UK economic upturn is to be sustainable in the longer run.”