North East LEP comment on ONS 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 release includes quarterly data for the North East region (for the period January to March 2022). The region includes the North East LEP area and Tees Valley.

Helen Golightly OBE, chief executive of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “This month’s figures show a large increase in employment in the North East, with the total rising by almost 13,000 compared to the previous quarter.

“This increase is largely due to an increase in workers aged over 65. The position in other age ranges and on other key indicators we follow remains largely unchanged.

“We have seen continued growth in the number of payrolled employees, but this data excludes self-employed workers so provides an incomplete picture of the labour market. We have a continuing and distinctive challenge with North East unemployment and working age economic inactivity rates both being the highest in the nine English regions. The latter measures people who are not in work or actively seeking employment.

“Yet, employers in some of our key sectors like transport, digital and construction are struggling to find people with the right skills.

“This is a crucial and urgent conundrum for us to solve. As we face a future of higher living costs, a clear focus on helping people to secure higher paid and skilled employment will be good for our residents, build business confidence and be good for the region’s economy.”