The North East has recorded the largest fall in unemployment in the UK over the last year, despite seeing a small rise in the rate of people out of work in latest figures.
Monthly figures released today show that the region’s unemployment had risen 0.1% from last month’s record low to stand at 4.2%. That was above the national average of 3.8%, but the North East no longer has its long term position of the worst unemployment rate in the country, with higher figures in both London and the West Midlands.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the North East has had the largest increase in the employment rate over the last year, with the figure up by 2.9 percentage points. The region has also seen the largest fall of unemployment over that period (down 1.1 percentage points) and the largest decrease in economic activity (down (2.2 percentage points).
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Nationally, the ONS warned that companies were citing “economic pressures as a factor in holding back on recruitment” and said that wage growth continues to be outstripped by soaring costs, however. The number of people in the North East claiming unemployment-related benefits stood at 70,640.
Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “With the number of people neither working nor looking for a job down again, there were rises in both those in work and those actively looking for a job. However, while the group outside the labour market – termed ‘economically inactive’ – fell, the number among them who were long-term sick rose to a new record high. Job vacancies have fallen again but remain at very high levels.
“Meanwhile, pay continues to grow more slowly than prices, so earnings are still falling in real terms, although the gap between public and private sector earnings growth continues to narrow.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “While unemployment remains close to historic lows, rising prices continue to eat into pay cheques which is why halving inflation this year is one of our top economic priorities. To help families in the meantime, we are making work pay with a record increase in the National Living Wage, while providing cost of living support worth an average of £3,300 per household this year and last, funded through windfall taxes on energy profits.”
Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said: “Our country has enormous potential. We should be leading in the industries of the future and creating good jobs across Britain – but the Tories continue to hold us back.
“Thirteen years of the Tories and all we have is a gaping hole where their plan for growth should be and a cost-of-living crisis that continues to damage family finances. Their lack of ambition for Britain is leaving real wages down, families worse off, hundreds of thousands fewer people in work and our economy lagging.”
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