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North East employment rate rises faster than any other UK region

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures have shown a rise in North East employment, a rate which has increased more than another other UK region.

Employment stands at just over 1.2 million people equating to 71.1%, an increase of 8,000 over the quarter and 52,000 over the year.

Paul Carbert, North East England Chamber of Commerce, said: “There are some very positive figures today. Not only has our employment rate improved our unemployment rate is now below 7% for the first time since 2008.

“We also have the highest rate of apprenticeship starts in relation to the number of people in employment, which highlights the increasing investment in training by employers in our region.”

Richard Baker, North East LEP Head of Strategy and Policy, added: “These latest statistics show continued progress towards the target we set in the Strategic Economic Plan of growing the number of jobs in the North East economy and closing the employment rate gap with the national average.

“Other recent evidence suggests that almost 60% of the North East jobs growth is in higher productivity roles.

“Clearly, there are still concerns about making sure that people in less stable employment can progress into more stable jobs and we will be looking at provisional figures in this part of the labour market carefully.

“The overall picture though from today’s statistics is good news for the North East in that there are more employment opportunities for people who are finding work to move out of unemployment and into work.”

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