Northampton bucks national unemployment trend with two job-seekers for every job
NORTHAMPTON is continuing to buck the national trend of rising unemployment with one vacancy available for every two jobseekers in the town, latest figures have shown.
Analysis by think-tank IPPR of the number of vacancies compared to the number of people claiming Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) has revealed that there are 2.2 people competing for each job.
This figure is in the top 20 per cent of all local authorities in the UK. In one authority in Scotland 20 people are competing for each vacancy.
Conservative MP for Northampton North, Michael Ellis, said: “Northampton has an awful lot to offer especially in light of the award of the enterprise zone status.
“Like most places there will be some ups and downs but at the moment these figures are encouraging.
“But there are a tremendous amount of challenges facing the global economy and there is still a lot of work done to repair our economy.”
The second best figure in the country for the number of vacancies to job seekers was Daventry where 0.6 people are competing for each new job.
Chris Millar, leader of Daventry District Council, said this figure was the result of pro-business policies adopted by the local authority.
Councillor Millar said: “We’re saying that we are open to business and are very ambitious.
“The reason why businesses like Daventry is because we have a clear vision of what we want to achieve. Our location in the middle of the country helps but we want to make Daventry an attractive place for companies to invest.”
Official figures released yesterday showed that employment in the East Midlands has decreased by 36,000 to 2.1 million and unemployment has increased by 7,000 to 190,000.
In Northampton the number of people claiming JSA has decreased from 5,342 in November to 5,288 in December.
Midlands TUC Regional Secretary Rob Johnston said the news that another 7,000 people had been made unemployed was “worse than expected.”
Mr Johnston said: “Unfortunately, unemployment in our region is fast becoming a fact of life. We have called on the government previously to take action on growth and jobs and these figures yet again show the need for bold solutions to put people back to work. The news for those in work isn’t great, with pay growth falling and more people forced to move into part-time or self-employment.”
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There are 6 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
MissK
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 08:31 AMThat's funny, I've applied for many many jobs now if there really were 2 people for every job surely by now I would've got one...
willi eckaslyke
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 09:47 AMTeddyMc....You're lucky - they are everywhere (some, 0.5).
Common sense
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 09:34 AM40 hours a week in a warehouse--hardly the high tech high paid jobs being talked about....How many jobs has either of the competing enterprise zones created so far?
TeddyMcnabb
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 09:22 AMIn daventry its 0.6 people, never met a 0.6 person in my life.
TeddyMcnabb
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 09:20 AM`I know a number of unemployed people, desperate for work, the first question i ask after they have been for an interview is how many applicants , ive never heard them say two , more like "too" many, where this figure is plucked from , i and many another have no idea.
dustonfats
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 08:24 AMonly problem with this is when you search for vacancies on the jobcentre system, most of them are with employment agencies and when you call them they say that vacancy has been taken already,but please come and register anyway.
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