Local residents have described how 'times are getting harder' in the Nottinghamshire area where unemployment is three times as high as the neighbouring area. New figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal the percentage of working age people who are unemployed in every parliamentary constituency in Great Britain.
In the Parliamentary constituency of Nottingham South, 6.4 per cent of people aged 16 and over are out of work, which is the highest rate in the county and the 40th highest of all 632 constituencies in Great Britain. However, in Rushcliffe, just 1.9 per cent of people are unemployed - creating one of the largest differences between neighbouring constituencies in the country.
In Nottingham South, which includes Lenton, Radford, The Meadows and Clifton, people were not surprised by the figures and questioned if there were enough jobs locally. Louise Kaye, 40, a cleaner from Lenton, said: “I do think there’s not enough jobs, there seems to be a lot of evening jobs instead of things in the daytime. I have to travel into the town centre as there’s definitely no jobs local to me.
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"I’m currently looking for a morning job but I just can’t find any! I’ve worked since I was 16 and everything goes on your CV. If you haven’t got much on your CV or had much experience then no one wants you.”
Duval Osbourne, 29, who is a self employed clothing salesman from Radford, said he believes "times are getting harder". He added: "I’ve been self employed now for six years, as agency work is not stable and it’s hard to build something for yourself. I sell clothing on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
"You have more drive working for yourself, plus not getting a job is disheartening. There’s definitely not enough jobs in the area but I’m not sure why. Unemployment could be improved by having more education and youth clubs for qualifications, they had loads of youth clubs when I was younger - otherwise you have no skills for a job.”
Elsewhere in the city, Nottingham North has a rate of 6.3 per cent and in Nottingham East the rate was 6 per cent. Ashfield has the next lowest unemployment rate in Nottinghamshire after Rushcliffe at 2.8 per cent.
That’s followed by Bassetlaw (3.1 per cent), Broxtowe (3.4 per cent), Sherwood (3.6 per cent), Gedling (3.8 per cent), and Newark (4.1 per cent). The ONS statistics used in this article calculate unemployment using a new model and as such is experimental data.
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