Employment rise "a false dawn"
Business leaders in the West Midlands have called the rise in employment figures “a false dawn”. Will Rogers, policy adviser at Birmingham Chamber Group, said it was more important to note that the jobseekers allowance claimant count has risen.
He said that the number of JSA claimants will “undoubtedly rise more with proposed public sector cuts”.
The number of unemployed people in the UK fell by 8,000 to 2.47m for the three months to July 2010.
Rogers said that the figures suggest the rise in employment may be primarily down to economically inactive people finding work, such as students, rather than unemployed people getting jobs.
He also added that the region’s companies “may not be strong enough” to compensate for the 600,000 public sector jobs expected to go over the next five years.
There are currently 636,900 public sector posts in the West Midlands, which is, 27 per cent of the UK total.
Rogers said: “If local authorities were to cut at least 20 per cent of their budgets, we could be looking at approximately 127,380 jobs being lost in the region.
“This is on top of the job losses already announced at Advantage West Midlands, and potentially others at the Government Office of the West Midlands – it all adds up to an extremely gloomy picture for consumers and business confidence.”
