Unemployment figures in Coventry and Warwickshire are at their lowest since comparable records began in 1985, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
A report to the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Jobs & Skills Business Group heard that there are currently 4,676 people in Coventry and 3,426 in Warwickshire claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). This has fallen by 37.7 per cent compared to this time last year.
The number of 18-24-year-olds claiming JSA in Coventry and Warwickshire is also at its lowest since comparable records started 30 years ago.
Figures have fallen by 58 per cent in Coventry (760 people aged 18-24-years-old are JSA claimants) and by 50 per cent in Warwickshire (645 people aged 18-24-years-old are JSA claimants).
There have also been significant reductions in long-term youth unemployment in the area. There are currently 160 people aged 18-to-24-years-old in Coventry who have been claiming JSA for more than six months and 145 in Warwickshire.
Long-term unemployment for those aged over 25 shows there are 1,270 people in Coventry and 790 in Warwickshire who have been receiving JSA for more than a year.
Marion Plant, chair of the CWLEP’s Jobs & Skills Business Group and chief executive and principal of North Warwickshire and Hinckley College and South Leicestershire College, said the figures were extremely encouraging.
“The three priority areas for the Job & Skills Business Group are skills, social inclusion and employment and this latest overview of the labour market in Coventry and Warwickshire is fantastic news,” she said.
“The Department for Work and Pensions has provided a number of schemes through its Youth Contract programme to tackle youth unemployment including work experience and the figures show these are having a positive knock-on effect.
“Ensuring young people have plenty of work placement opportunities makes a real difference when going for interviews as well as looking pro-active on CVs and they are gaining the skills which employers need.
“These statistics are extremely encouraging but we shouldn’t become complacent. The real challenge is making sure we find out about individuals who are not known to the Department for Work and Pensions because they are not claiming benefits so that they can also be helped to find work.”