Region’s unemployment total falls again, latest figures show

UNEMPLOYMENT in the West Midlands has continued to fall despite recent concerns about major job losses in the region.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 153,000 people unemployed in the region for the three months to October 2015 – the figure represents a fall of 3,000 (0.2%) on the previous May to July quarter.

The regional rate of unemployment stands at 5.5%, with the national average at 5.2%.

The figures show there are also 34,000 (1.3%) fewer people unemployed in the region than this time last year.

Nationally the latest figures show a fall in unemployment of 110,000 for the three months to October, giving a total of 1.71m. The figure is down almost a quarter of a million (244,000) compared with 12 months ago and the level is now at its lowest for almost 10 years as the last time the rate was lower than this was in the three months to January 2006.

Comparing August to October 2015 with a year earlier, pay for employees increased by 2.4% including bonuses and by 2% excluding bonuses.

Neil Carberry, CBI Director for Employment and Skills, said: “The unemployment rate has fallen to pre-recession levels for the first time as the labour market continues to perform strongly, with youth unemployment also declining.

“The UK’s strong performance on job creation reflects the fact that our flexible labour market enables firms to create jobs easily and scale up production. With some significant labour market interventions like the apprenticeship levy and National Living Wage on the horizon, it is important this flexibility is not diluted further.”

Mike Steventon, Midlands regional chair at KPMG, said: “Today’s employment statistics show that the West Midlands is heading in the right direction when it comes to growing our workforce.

“The Government has been calling the Midlands the ‘engine for growth’ and these figures show that engine is really gaining steam, which is only further evidenced by the fact that the West Midlands has the highest proportion of jobs in the production sector.”

John Hawksworth, PwC’s chief economist, said: “UK employment rates continue to power ahead to record levels, but earnings growth seems to have stalled in recent months.

“Overall, around half a million jobs have been created over the past year, around two-thirds of which have been full-time jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate has fallen back to 5.2%, the lowest since the financial crisis.

“But this strong jobs growth has not been reflected in higher pay growth, which has instead fallen back to only around 2% for regular pay. This largely reflects a slowdown in earnings growth recently in the private services sector, which suggests that many of the new jobs created there may be at relatively low pay rates, so pulling down overall average pay growth.”