Nottingham has seen the biggest fall in unemployment of any of England’s Core Cities, according to latest figures.
Unemployment in Nottingham City fell by 2.9% in the month of October and by 6% in the previous 12 months. Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Leeds saw lower reductions while Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle saw unemployment increase. Figures for the wider ‘primary urban area’ of Nottingham show unemployment fell by 2.6% for October and 4% over the year, the second biggest annual decline after Liverpool.
The city’s unemployment rate is now 3% and 2.1% for the primary urban area, on a par with Manchester and Newcastle. Unemployment fell for all age groups except for the over 60s.
The national unemployment rate has been relatively stable at around 1.8% since May 2015. Over the same period, Nottingham’s rate has fallen from 3.6% to 3.0%, meaning the gap between the local and national unemployment rates has fallen to 1.2 percentage points.
Councillor Sam Webster, the City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “The figures show that closer partnership working between agencies locally the Job Centre, Futures and the Council’s Nottingham Jobs team is having a really encouraging impact.
“We’ve made a commitment in the Council Plan for 2015-2019 to guarantee a job, training place or further education place for every 18 to 24 year old in the city. In 2015/16, a total of 4,809 people were helped into work including 2,300 via the city’s Employer Hub and 915 via the Apprentice Hub.”
“Although like all cities there remain significant issues of underemployment, short term contracts and low pay, the latest employment outlook is very encouraging.
“The most recent official statistics for employment in Nottingham City show that it had increased by 11% (21,800) since 2010, significantly higher than the increase in rates for the South East (6%) for England as a whole (7%).”