Against the national figures, released today, which show a slight decrease in UK unemployment, there was no comfort for the West Midlands. It recorded yet another increase. Unemployment in the West Midlands has reached 8.8%, that is an additional 16,000 people made jobless.
Ravi Subramanian, UNISON Regional Secretary said:
“The West Midlands is one of six regions in the UK where unemployment is still increasing, so any talk of economic growth because of the very slight decrease in the UK average unemployment figures, would be very premature. The Government need a long term plan, one of job creation to ease our economic woes.The reality behind the numbers, 273,000 people now unemployed in the West Midlands, is yet more misery and suffering for thousands of families in our region and many others in the country, like Yorkshire and Humberside and our neighbours in the East Midlands.We are also experiencing another major issue, that of underemployment, there has been a substantial rise in part-time working as people are forced to take part-time jobs because they have no other choice, and we have record highs of young people either out of work or not in education or training – they are being are fast becoming the lost generation”.Unemployment and under-employment will remain the blight on our community and local economy without any real long-term plan for job creation."
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