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North East Local Enterprise Partnership reaction to ONS regional labour market statistics

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Chief Executive, Helen Golightly OBE, has commented on today’s regional labour market statistics, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  

“Today’s statistics cover the North East region, which includes the North East LEP area and Tees Valley Combined Authority area.

“For the third month in a row we have seen a decrease in the employment rate, meaning there are fewer people in work, but more significantly, an increase in the economic inactivity rate, which is the number of people who have left the labour market and are not actively looking for work. This has increased more than any other English region and the gap between the North East and the next English region (Yorkshire and the Humber) is significant.

“The North East region has an additional 33,000 working age people who are inactive compared to the same period in 2020. Recent increases in inactivity have been particularly large among the youngest workers, but there have also been increases among those aged 35 to 64.

“There is more work to do to understand the detail behind these changes, but it is now apparent that because the North East region has the highest inactivity rate across all regions in England, we need to work with government to ensure a swift implementation of the Skills White Paper and to ensure the Levelling Up White paper is published and progressed early in 2022 with no further delays.”

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ONS Labour Market Statistics reaction

Victoria Sutherland, North East Local Enterprise Partnership Senior Economist, said:

Today’s labour market statistics for the North East are positive, showing that employment in the North East has grown over both the quarter and the year.

An additional 27,000 people are in work compared to a year ago. This change has been driven by a growth in full-time work, with a fall in part-time work and self employment.

In addition to this welcome news regarding employment, we have seen a decline in unemployment and the unemployment rate.

The 14,000 fall in unemployment in the North East over the three months up until March accounts for just over a quarter of the overall national decline in unemployment.

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North East economy strengthening with record numbers in work

A record number of people in work and fewer people without a job are both confirmation of a strengthening regional economy, North East LEP economist Fiona Thom said today.

The LEP welcomed the latest North East labour market statistics which showed employment levels at a record high and unemployment falling both in the short and longer term.

The North East employment rate for September to November 2015 has increased from 68.2% to 69.8% in the short term, and continues to rise in the longer term.

The latest data shows that the region is closing the gap with the UK average employment rate of 74.0%, as employment levels have risen faster than the national average.

Fiona said: “It is important to be cautious when interpreting short term fluctuations in labour market data. Our focus at the LEP is continuing to help the increase in longer term employment by creating more and better jobs.

“Following last month’s short term increase in unemployment rates, we have seen a decrease over the period between September and November.

“This continues the longer term decrease in regional unemployment from 10.2% in the same period in 2013.

“Economic inactivity has also fallen in the last three months as more people move into employment, which is good news as this is a key focus of the strategic economic plan, through supporting people back into economic activity.

“Over the longer term, economic inactivity remains fairly constant but the reasons for the inactivity are changing, with an increasing proportion of people looking after family and or home and the proportion of those with ill health, which is a key challenge in the North East, slowly falling.

“This is good news for the region, with more people in work than ever before. We want to continue this and will be analysing the data closely over coming months to determine if we are beginning to see an upward longer term trend in the North East labour market.”