City jobless crisis with five areas worst in UK
BIRMINGHAM has suffered a jobs meltdown with nearly one in seven people now looking for work in parts of the city.
The city continues to have the worst levels of joblessness in the UK, with more people out of work here than in the north – even though the north is often portrayed as the poorest part of the country.
In fact, five of the 10 constituencies with the highest jobless rates across the entire UK are in Birmingham.
New figures show the claimant rate in the Birmingham Hodge Hill constituency is 14.1 per cent, roughly one in seven. That’s the highest rate of any constituency in the UK.
There are 11,045 people searching for a job in Hodge Hill, an increase of 4,765 compared to a year ago.
In the Birmingham Ladywood constituency, 13.6% of the population is looking for work. That’s 14,435 people, an increase of 5,620 over 12 months.
And in Birmingham Perry Barr, 13.1% are looking for work. This is 9,405 people, up by 3,815 people over a year. Other hotspots include Erdington (12.5 per cent looking for work) and Hall Green (11.8 per cent looking for work).
The figures refer to the proportion of the population aged 16 to 64 who are either on Jobseeker’s Allowance, or are required to look for work as a condition of their Universal Credit payments.
In the whole West Midlands region, the claimant rate is 7.1 per cent. There are 260,100 jobseekers, up by 122,400 people over 12 months.
The increase follows a series of national and regional lockdowns which forced many businesses to close.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak vowed to do everything he could to protect jobs, but Labour MPs said the figures showed that he had failed.
Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, said: “Once again Birmingham Ladywood has to face the grim reality that we have some of the worst unemployment figures in Birmingham and the UK. We cannot lose sight of the fact that each one of these numbers represents a family who now has to face the nightmare of no work.
“Unemployment has become endemic in our community. This is no fault of the neighbourhoods that create it, but instead demonstrate the underlying weaknesses imposed on us by an economy that is not functioning correctly. We used to have the beacon of light which was the retail and service sector in the city centre, but the pandemic has robbed us of this thriving hub of employment.
“The Government says that they want people to retrain and reskill to find work, but for months now our city has been hollowed out of these jobs. Asking people to search for work that doesn’t exist is madness writ large for all to see.”
National unemployment figures – which are calculated differently to claimant count figures – showed Britain’s
jobless rate surged to its highest level for nearly five years, with the pandemic hitting young workers hardest.
The Office for National Statistics said unemployment stood at 1.7 million between October and December, up 454,000 over the year, marking the biggest annual increase since the financial crisis.
But there was a glimmer of light in the figures, which also showed the number of payrolled workers rose by 83,000 between January and February in the second monthly increase in a row.
Minister for Employment Mims Davies said: “The figures highlight the challenges people are still facing, but there are glimmers of hope with employment relatively stable, over 600,000 people moving onto payrolls and hours worked up.
“With the Prime Minister setting out the roadmap to cautiously ease lockdown and the vaccine rollout protecting millions of people, we’re looking ahead to our recovery - our Plan for Jobs is creating new opportunities, boosting skills, and delivering a package of support for people of all ages, getting Brits back into work as we push to build back better.”
“The announcement of the roadmap out of lockdown restrictions offered much needed clarity for individuals in England. What was lacking, however, was guidance specifically for businesses around how they will be supported as we emerge from restrictions.”
Asking people to search for work that doesn’t exist is madness writ large for all to see Shabana Mahmood MP, pictured left
THE family of a Tamworth murder victim has been denied a cemetery memorial bench despite a 3,000-strong petition and a review into the council’s overall policy.
Keeley Bunker’s family were denied the tribute near her headstone in Wigginton Cemetery because Tamworth Borough Council said it had to be fair to those who had previously been refused.
But that decision sparked a huge show of support for the family of the 20-year old, who was killed by evil Wesley Streete, and the authority agreed to review its policy.
Providing an update in Tuesday’s council meeting, Cllr Thomas Jay, chair of corporate scrutiny, said: “We had two meetings, we had good debate and discussion and came to some conclusions in the end. The case that meant this was referred to scrutiny was a high profile, emotive case but we were looking at the policy as a whole not individual cases.
“Throughout discussion it was clear that the policy should still remain with no changes because there is a space issue in Tamworth especially into the future.
“This is referred back to the council that there be no changes to that policy.
“There were some additional recommendations to look at the fact that there is an existing process for memorial plaques which isn’t taken up so there must be a reason for that so to look into alternative options so grieving families can have some memorial options and potentially consult families see fit as well.”
Departing leader Cllr Danny Cook said: “Recommendations came back that the policy was correct and we do it for the right reason but obviously there are other matters that we can look to tidy up in the long term. Do we need a memorial garden? Is the plaque scheme the correct way to approach things? I have already written to Keeley’s family offering further discussion if they wish around placing this bench potentially somewhere else in Tamworth.”
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