Jobless figure falls – but only by 0.7 per cent (From Worcester News)

Jobless figure falls – but only by 0.7 per cent

6:20pm Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News By Richard Vernalls, @rvernallsWN #worcsnews

WORCESTERSHIRE is experiencing a “flat recovery”, latest jobless figures show.

The county council’s economic summary reports that the number of people claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance between August 2009 and last December (the latest figure available) fell by 0.7 per cent.

Nationally, unemployment is at a 17-year high.

There were 10,379 people claiming benefits in the county in December and 4,981 advertised job vacancies.

Jobless rates are lower here than either the West Midlands and England and Wales as a whole.

A closer analysis of the figures shows claimant numbers have been rising slightly every month for the past 18 months, but are far below the July 2009 high of 13,500.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, the county council’s economic prosperity portfolio holder, said the drop might be down to a “staggered recession” and a “flat economic recovery”.

He said: “The private sector had its recession in 2008/09, and it happened quickly. The public sector is losing those jobs now, but over a longer period. There’s less willingness to make people redundant and more flexibility to reduce working hours and cap or cut pay.”

Coun Geraghty said there was no evidence of any significant turnaround in economic fortunes.

He said: “People are feeling real pressure and I won’t downplay how tough things are. There is downward pressure on pay.”

But he said county businesses “can grow if they develop their markets”, and feels industry is leaner and could prove to be well-placed in future to do well in overseas markets.

Coun Geraghty also said the national issue of how agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s rated the Government’s creditworthiness did “trickle down to the county taxpayer”.

“If we lost our triple-A credit rating as a country, council borrowing rates would be above their current interest of about two per cent.

“That has a knock-on effect, because more taxpayers’ money would go to repay borrowing.”