Jobs boom as benefit claims fall in region

The South West’s jobs market is continuing to rebound from the Covid crisis with the number of people receiving benefits falling and thousands of jobs available.

The end of the Government’s furlough scheme in September appears to have done little to dent a surging jobs situation in the region.

New figures from the Department of Work and Pensions reveal 418,514 people were receiving Universal Credit (UC) in the South West in mid October down by 447 on a month earlier.

UC claimants can be working and topping up their earnings with benefits, and across the UK the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of payrolled workers surged by 160,000 or 0.6 per cent between September and October to 29.3million.

It said the payrolled worker numbers were now “well above” levels seen before the pandemic struck, up 235,000 since February 2020. The UK unemployment rate also fell once more to 4.3 per cent between July and September, down from 4.5 per cent between June and August, in spite of the furlough scheme coming to an end on September 30.

The ONS said survey responses so far suggest only a small number of redundancies have been made among the 1.1 million still on furlough when the scheme closed, with vacancies hitting also another record high.

Meanwhile, the Kickstart programme, aimed at easing young people into work, has seen 100,000 youngsters find positions with employers.

The number of job vacancies continues to rise too, to such an extent that many employers are having real difficulty finding skilled and unskilled workers.

Beverly Phillips, of Jobcentre Plus in the South West, said employers have been seeking workers across a number of sectors including care, cleaning, security, retail, logistics, warehousing.

She added: “There are also jobs in construction, even at this time of year, when work normally peters out, they are looking for people.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak hailed the latest jobs figures as being “testament to the extraordinary success of the furlough scheme”.

But the ONS cautioned the full effect of furlough closing may yet be felt, with some workers let go still potentially working out their notice and on redundancy pay.