North East LEP 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).

The release includes quarterly data for the North East statistical region for the first quarter (January to March) of 2023. The region includes the North East LEP area and Tees Valley.

Helen Golightly OBE, Chief Executive of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP), said: “These figures contain some really positive news for the region’s jobs market. Almost 38,000 more people are in work in the region than a year ago, and we’ve seen a big shift from economic inactivity into employment over the past three months.

“But, underneath the headlines, there are some indicators which suggest the improvements are not being spread evenly across the workforce – the rise in employment rate was much higher for women than it was for men and, in fact, the employment rate actually fell for men aged 25 to 49.

“We also know that nationally the falls in economic inactivity were largely driven by younger people aged 16 to 24, and that long term sickness has reached record highs. We can expect those trends to be echoed in the North East figures when they become available.

“These are tough times for business, and a rise in planned redundancies reflects broader economic uncertainty and the impact of rising costs. As a region we need to celebrate the positive progress that has been made, but keep working hard to make sure we have a fit, productive workforce with the right skills to enable our businesses to thrive.”

Further labour market analysis can be found on the North East Evidence Hub.