The South West jobs market is continuing to recover with a huge drop in the number of people claiming benefits - but wages lag behind soaring inflation.
Latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show 108,397 people were claiming Universal Credit in the region, a 36% drop from a year earlier when the Covid lockdowns were having a major effect.
But though the figure is down by 59,797 year on year, it is still 33,5325 more than five years ago - possibly because of a decline in the number of self-employed people.
The number of people employed in the region is now at 2.7million, giving an employment rate of 77%, which is higher than the national average of 7.8%.
In Exeter, the claimant count at the end of November 2021, the most recent figures available, was 2,296, which was down by 36% year-on-year.
Plymouth’s total of 7,049 was down 31%, North Devon’s 1,654 was a decline of 41% and the 1,141 in Torridge was down by 43%. In Bristol, there were 38,894 Universal Credit claimants in January 2022.
The DWP has opened 13 new Jobcentres in the region, including in Plymouth and Exeter, and seven youth hubs, with an aim of hitting a national target of getting 500,000 claimants into work by June 2022.
And there remain many jobs available with employers increasingly complaining about a shortage of candidates and online job adverts in the region having risen by 10.6% since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Among opportunities for job seekers, London Cocktail Club is opening a bar in Exeter in the Spring, and in Bude, Cornwall, employers including Aria Resorts (Bude Holiday Park), Lakeshore Leisure (Crawford Lakes), Darwin Escapes (Sandymouth Holiday Park) and Adventure International have been in touch with Jobcentre Plus to discuss recruitment days and jobs fairs to promote vacancies.
Jobcentre Plus has also been in discussion with Golden Coast Holiday Park and Woolacombe Bay Holiday Park, which are launching seasonal recruitment days.
Supermarket chains, including Asda and Tesco, are recruiting in the South West, with Asda even conducting mock interviews with prospective employees at the Jobcentre in Bideford.
The construction industry also has many jobs available, and Torbay Development Agency has recognised a recent growth in demand for construction skills and work closely together DWP to address the issue.
Joanne Harris, Barnstaple-based Jobcentre customer services manager, said a lot of work had been done to upskill claimants ready for work, and was delighted with the way claimant figures had fallen.
“We are really pleased,” she said. “We have invested in more work coaches and more networking with employers. And the economy is opening up again.”
Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the number of UK workers on payrolls rose by 108,000 between December and January to 29.5million. The unemployment rate also reduced by 0.2 percentage points to 4.1% over the three months to December.
The UK employment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points on the quarter to 75.5%, while the number of people deemed economically inactive also increased slightly.
Meanwhile, total pay growth rose to 4.3% for the quarter to December – from 4.2% for the three months to November – but continued to lag behind inflation, which soared to a near 30-year high of 5.4% in December.
The ONS said this means that real wages fell once you adjust for inflation over the quarter. It comes as people face mounting pressures from a cost-of-living crisis which is expected to worsen soon, with energy bills set to surge in April.
Jack Kennedy, UK economist at the global job site Indeed, said: “With the unemployment rate down, and both the number of vacancies and the number of people in work up, at first glance this appears to be a near flawless set of jobs numbers.
“But there’s a major blot on the landscape, and it’s spreading. The average UK worker’s pay is now falling in real terms as pay rises fail to keep up with the surging cost of living.”
Sam Beckett, head of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The number of employees on payrolls rose again in January 2022 and is now well above pre-pandemic levels.
“However, our Labour Force Survey shows the number of people in employment overall is well below where it was before Covid-19 hit. This is because there are now far fewer self-employed people.”
The new data also revealed record vacancy levels, with advertised job openings rising to 1.29million for the three months to January, representing a 513,700 increase on pre-pandemic levels.
Suren Thiru, British Chambers of Commerce head of economics, said: “Record vacancies underscore the critical hiring crisis facing firms. With high economic inactivity indicating that many people have left the jobs market altogether, chronic staff shortages are likely to weigh on the UK economy for a sustained period.”
Martin Beck, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: “The latest labour market numbers suggest that the jobs market largely shrugged off the drag on activity from Omicron in December.”
