Yorkshire and the Humber experience continued job growth

Yorkshire and the Humber has seen a 2% increase job growth in the UK over the past year, according to NatWest’s Regional Economic Tracker.

In the 12 months ending 30th September 2016, the number of people in full time employment in Yorkshire and the Humber increased by 2%.

These 51,000 extra jobs have helped the region’s unemployment rate fall to 6.1% from 8.6% last year.

Elsewhere, the North East, West Midlands. Northern Ireland and Wales have also seen strong employment growth of 4.4%, 4.1 %, 3.1% and 2.9% respectively.

Three of these top four have unemployment rates that are above the UK average of 4.8%.

Sebastian Burnside, NatWest senior economist, commented: “While there are still uncertainties around the UK leaving the EU, the improving performance of many UK regions is certainly welcome.

“It’s encouraging that many of the areas with the highest unemployment rates are seeing the greatest increase in employment levels.

“Hopefully this means that the jobs recovery is broadening out across the country with regions that hadn’t done so well until recently catching up.”

“Over the longer term we’ve seen momentous changes in the way the UK works. Part time work is on the up and has made roughly the same contribution as full time work to the increase in jobs seen since 2008.

“The factors behind this trend include rising participation of women and older workers, alongside the rapid growth of service sectors that tend to employ more part-time workers.”