Region bucks the national trend on unemployment
THE West Midlands has bucked the national trend on unemployment, being one the few regions in the UK to show a further fall in its jobless total.
The region’s unemployment total fell by 6,000 for the three months to February 2016 when compared with the September to November quarter last year, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics has shown.
There are now 152,000 people out of work in the region, a rate of 5.5%. The figure is in contrast to the national picture, which shows a 21,000 rise in unemployment levels to 1.7m.
It is somewhat ironic that the data should come out on a day when the region has been rocked by a major employment bombshell with British Gas announced the closure of a major site in the Black Country with the threatened loss of hundreds of jobs.
Speaking before the announcement by British Gas, Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said the reduction in the unemployment rate in the West Midlands contrasted with nearly everywhere else in the country, where the jobless rate either increased or stayed the same during the past three months.
Mr Faulkner said: “Today marks another period of decline in the West Midlands unemployment rate.
“This highlights the good economic performance of the region and importantly sees us bucking the national trend, as many other regions saw their unemployed numbers rise.
“Given our historically low levels of employment, it is crucial that we maintain this course if we are to carry on strengthening economically and tap into the region’s true potential.”
Wolverhampton City Council said statistics in its own area indicated that the region’s trend was no fluke.
It said youth unemployment in particular was down and that new developments such as the city’s i10 building were helping to lure new employers to the area.
The new i10 building has attracted major tenants including retailers Greene King and Superdrug, plus Ovivo and Countryside.
Global enterprises based in Wolverhampton such as Jaguar Land Rover and Marston’s are also said to be expanding and taking on more staff.
One area which did not fare so well was Coventry and Warwickshire, where the figures were flat.
Louise Bennett, the chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We saw a rise in unemployment across Coventry and Warwickshire in the past two months so to see a slight fall – albeit a very small one – across the region has hopefully addressed the slide.”
The picture was better in Staffordshire, where the county council said people were striving for better paid, better skilled employment and the number of people out of work remained well below pre-recession levels.
Cllr Mark Winnington said the with near full employment in Staffordshire, the council’s focus was on driving up people’s skills to enable them to take advantage of growing opportunities for better paid jobs.
“We continue to attract new business to the county on high quality development sites while retaining big employers and supporting their expansion,” he said.
“This has a positive impact on smaller companies in supply chains and ensures we have a well-rounded economy.”
Nationally, Neil Carberry, CBI Director for Employment and Skills, said: “With more uncertainty in the economy it’s not surprising that labour market performance shows signs of levelling off, with employment growing at the slowest rate since last summer while unemployment edged up a little.
“Employers are also having to take on increased costs associated with a range of new policies on wages and skills, which may have delayed growth plans.”
