New jobs figures show North East employment slipping further behind rest of the country

Now the region’s biggest business organisation is urging the Government to do more to close the gap or risk seeing its pledge to ‘level up’ the country fail.

Employment figures released today, Tuesday, February 15, by the office for National Statics, cover the period from October to December 2021 for the Tees Valley Combined Authority and North East Local Enterprise Partnership areas.

They show the number of people employed in the region stood at 1,186,000 – a rise of 2,000 (0.1%) over the three months but a fall of 14,000 (1.1%) over the year.

The North East employment rate is 71%, compared to 75.5% across the country.

There are 70,000 people classed as unemployed across the region, an increase of 6,000 (9.3%) over the quarter but a fall of 11,000 (13.4%) over the year.

The North East unemployment rate is 5.6%, compared to a national rate of 4.1%.

The fact that both the number of people in employment and the number classed as unemployed have fallen over the year reflects a drop in the number of people classed as economically active and actually looking for work.

The drop in economically active people also saw the number of unemployment benefits claimants fall.

There were 85,200 claimants in the North East in January, down (0.9%) over the month and 32,700 over the year (27.7%). The claimant count rate for the North East is 5.9%.

Jonathan Walker, policy director, North East England Chamber of Commerce, said the fall in employment year-on-year highlighted the differing effects of the pandemic nationwide: "The gap between the North East and national unemployment rates continues to grow,” he said.

“Less than two weeks ago we saw the Government launch its ‘Levelling Up’ strategy, which was heavy with analysis but light on solutions and funding.

"Action is needed now to help businesses get back on their feet, tackle skills gaps and address the complex issues such as poor health that prevent too many people from being able to work in our region.

“Every time these gaps are allowed to grow is a missed opportunity that makes levelling up harder”.

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