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 region for the three-month period November 2022 to January 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: “The data released today shows encouraging signs of progress in the region’s labour market over the past 12 months. The latest regional employment total is over 25,000 higher than a year ago and the employment rate has increased by more than the England equivalent. In addition, the unemployment rate has fallen by more than in any other region.

“However, there is work to be done to close the gap further as the North East still has the lowest regional employment rate and the highest working age economic inactivity rate, where people are neither employed nor seeking work. It is a concern that the number of economically inactive people has only fallen slightly in the last year despite the increased employment total.

“Additionally, we need to ensure that employment increases across the entire North East workforce. Experimental ONS data suggests that the rise in employment in the last year in the North East has been concentrated among older females and younger males.”

See further labour market analysis on the North East Evidence Hub.