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North East unemployment falls

There has been a surprise drop in the jobless figures for the region. The latest Government statistics say that unemployment is down by 1,000 in the North East. It means we are the only region to record a fall in the number of jobless, as unemployment across the country rises to 2.2m, the worst figure since 1996.

Nationwide, almost a quarter of a million more people were seeking work in the first three months of the year, official figures revealed yesterday.

A regional breakdown of the figures shows that the total number of unemployed in the North East now stands at 105,000.

GMB regional organiser Jimmy Skivington said he was surprised to hear the North East was the only region to record a drop in numbers.

He said: “This is good news, but how do they get these figures? “We are certainly not seeing a reflection of this as far as jobs are concerned. “There are more redundancies now than there has been for as long as I can remember. In manufacturing, in particular, people are bearing the brunt of the economic trouble, as last week’s announcement at Corus shows.”

Despite the dip in the overall figure, the North East remains the region with the second highest proportion of unemployed, at 8.3 per cent.

Ross Smith, head of policy at North East Chamber of Commerce, said it was too early to start talking about an upturn in the economy.

“We would be cautious about getting too excited about these figures,” he said. “Our own surveys show that the largest job cuts have already taken place - in that regard we can expect that job losses will be slowing.

“But there is no cause to be complacent. We are still operating in a very difficult economy and we would be better looking at statistics over the long term, rather than making judgements on three months’ worth.”

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