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North East unemployment falls

The North East has bucked the national trend as unemployment fell by 1.65% in the three months to September, official figures have shown.

The number of people out of work in the region is down by 2,000 - from 121,000 to 119,000 - according to the Office of National Statistics.

Despite the fall, the jobless rate in the North East is the second highest in the country, with 9.5% of the region’s workforce unemployed.

Across the UK, unemployment rose by 30,000 over the same period, taking the number of working age people without jobs to 2.46 million - the smallest rise since spring 2008.

There was a small increase of 6,000 in the number of people in work to almost 29 million, the first quarterly rise since the summer of last year. Full-time employment fell by 80,000 to 21 million, while part-time employment increased by 86,000 to a record high of 7.6 million.

The Government welcomed the increase in employment and the slower than expected rise in the jobless total, but warned “labour market difficulties” were still expected to continue for some time to come, with further rises in unemployment expected next year.

Employment Minister Jim Knight said: “When faced with the worst global recession since the 1930s, we made a decision to give jobseekers the support they need, investing £5 billion since last November in creating jobs, bringing in frontline advisers to Jobcentre Plus and expanding training and apprenticeships.

“Today’s figures show that while there is still more to do, our investment is making a real difference to people’s lives and ensuring that our labour market is performing well compared to other leading economies.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .