New Economy’s view on today’s unemployment figures

Following the release of today’s unemployment figures by the Office for National Statistics, Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at New Economy, said:

“Greater Manchester has experienced a particularly dramatic rise in its unemployment figures this month. What is particularly worrying is that youth unemployment caused all of this increase in the region, whilst female unemployment is continuing to rise as well.

“The figures are of course, reflective of the continued weakness of the global economy. However, there have been particular shocks this month with the end of the academic year putting young people into the labour market and the continued reassessment of incapacity benefit claimants.”

“LEP) to tackle unemployment by bringing more growth and jobs to Greater Manchester and its residents – not an easy task, but one we are dedicated to delivering. This will be discussed at the monthly LEP meeting tomorrow.”

Today’s figures released show that unemployment increased in Greater Manchester between August and September.

The number of jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) claimants in Greater Manchester grew by 1,170 and was recorded at 82,310 in September 2011 – a monthly rise of 1.4. National and regional JSA numbers also increased from August to September – by 0.2 and 1.4% respectively.

All districts in Greater Manchester saw a monthly increase in JSA claimants except Wigan where there was a 0.8% fall. The district with the largest proportional increase was Salford, with an increase of 2.8, with Bury and Tameside also seeing large monthly rises of 2.3 in each. In absolute terms however, Manchester saw the largest rise in unemployment, with 295 additional claimants.

Year on year, there has been a 10.5% increase in claimants compared to the situation in September 2010 – this represents 7,790 additional claimants across Greater Manchester. At a district level, there have been large annual increases in unemployment in Oldham (16.4), Tameside (14.4), Bury (13.1) and Rochdale (13.0).

4.8% of Greater Manchester’s population now claims jobseeker’s allowance, reversing improvements seen over the past year to be back to the level seen in early 2010. The highest claimant rates were seen in Rochdale (5.9), Oldham (5.6) and Manchester (5.4%).

Female unemployment has reached the highest level since 1995 at 3.1: there are now 26,540 female claimants in GM, the number increased by more than a quarter (26.9) in the last year, and they now make up roughly a third (32.2) of the claimant population.
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Youth unemployment has also risen by 1,170 (4.5), with 26,900 unemployed 16-24 year olds in Greater Manchester in September. This is an increase of 3,000 (12.6%) on September 2010 and the highest rate and level since March 2010.