Slight fall in Hartlepool jobless claimant count

There were 1,775 people claiming Out of Work Benefits in the town last month, down by just 15 on the November figure.

The claimant count in the Sedgefield constituency rose by 15 to1,345, was up by 40 in Stockton North to 2,240, but increased by 65 in Easington to 1,840.

Across the North East, employment stands at 1,229,000 or 72.2% - an increase of 11,000 over the quarter and 34,000 over the year. This compares to a rate of 75.3% nationally.

North East unemployment is 68,000 or 5.2% - a fall of 7,000 over the quarter and 20,000 over the year - compared to a rate of 4.3% nationally.

The claimant count stands at 54,900 or 4.4% in the North East. The national claimant count rate is 2.4%.

Carol Daniell, from Hartlepool JobCentre, said: "We have recruitment going on, particularly focused on manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics and the care sector is a big push at the moment, with a broad range of vacancies from domestic careers through to team leaders and management.

"And we are following up jobs fairs we held in late November and December in Hartlepool and Seaham. We had over 300 applications and what we are doing ow is following up to see how many of them have gone into work and whether there is anything we can do in additional help or support."

Paul Carbert, policy adviser with North East England Chamber of Commerce said: "More positive news this month and a continuation of the recent trend, with healthy falls in unemployment and rises in employment.

"The unemployment rate for the North East this quarter is at a record low. As the labour market tightens, we need to ensure that workers can acquire the skills required by businesses to drive forward growth.

Dan Kitchen, managing director of Wynyard-based chamber member razorblue, has seen the company’s workforce increase by 35% over the past 18 months and is confident of seeing this trend continue in 2018 and beyond.

"The figures released today reflect our experience, - 2017 saw us continue to meet demand and enter new markets, meaning we exceeded the growth targets we set ourselves and created a significant number of jobs," he said.

"Increasingly we find that businesses are looking for a single, professional partner to manage all of their IT, cloud, connectivity, telecoms and business system requirements and we are in an ideal position to meet that need.

"We have a great team here and we are adding talented individuals all the time. Our growth reflects our commitment to exceptional service levels, our ability to create innovative business solutions and becoming an invaluable IT partner for our clients.

"We are looking forward to an even better 2018 as we remain true to our core principle of putting client needs first."