Council heads call for ‘better picture’ of employment

Council bosses have called for official figures to provide a “better picture” of employment in Sunderland.

The call came as Sunderland City Council’s cabinet this week discussed performance figures for several services, including ‘growing the economy’.

A council report stated the city’s employment rate for July 2017 to June 2018 was 71% – a 1.8% increase on the same period the previous year.

The new Sunderland figure also exceeded the North East average of 70.6% and was below the England average of around 75%.

However, cabinet member for housing and regeneration, Coun Stuart Porthouse, raised concerns about the way the employment rate is set.

This includes the Labour Force Survey classing a person aged 16 and over doing one hour or more of paid work per week as ‘in employment’ – both employees or self-employed.

Coun Porthouse told councillors at Sunderland Civic Centre,” these figures as far as I’m concerned need a little bit more drilling down.

“When we say Sunderland employment rate at 71%, some could be on a 35-hour week, some could be on a 16-hour week, some could be on zerohour contracts.

“That would give us a better picture of what we mean by employment.

“It’s a statement of fact that employment figures now just really don’t mean anything.”

Deputy leader of Sunderland City Council, Coun Michael Mordey, also noted the figures in the context of food banks, which he said were “more prevalent in understanding the real economy of the country.”

“Food bank usage has absolutely skyrocketed –how can you have full employment or near full employment when you have record high food banks?” he said.

“We need to drill down differently to see how we can support these people who are technically, regarding the government definition, employed. It’s disgraceful.”

Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics recorded UK employment at a record high with a rate of 75.7% and 32.4 million people now in work.