So it's official, the Office of National Statistics tells us that UK employment has risen to 2.5 million, at the end of December 2010. This equates to 7.9% unemployment.
As we all suspected, youth employment has been hit hardest and now one in five 16-25 year olds is out of work (20.5%).
Long term unemployment is also at a high, with 833,000 people now out of work for more than a year.
Families and individuals are facing a tough year, alongside public sector workers who may well be joining them in the queue. Those with lower skills levels will find it hardest to get work, which leaves Leicester in a vulnerable position. Not only does Leicester have a high number of public sector workers but we also suffer from a lack of skill levels, with many people travelling from the County in to the City to work adding to the difficulties of local people finding local work.
Focus for the new Local Enterprise Partnership is likely to focus on jobs, skills and enterprise to get more people working and earning, but the situation remains complex. Until we get more firms with higher growth prospects, employing more people, we're unlikely to encourage people to improve their skills to get those jobs. But until we have higher skills levels its unlikely people will start businesses in high growth sectors.
Perhaps this is a great opportunity to create a complex, multi-faceted strategy to address this, with delivery bodies working on a larger project to address issues across the board? For too long we've all worked in silos, with the effects remaining minimal. We need a step change in the way Leicester views itself, it's skills, it's business. Short -term, small projects have short term, smaller impacts. They are often cut short when just beginning to make in-roads.
What would you like to see happen to make real change in our business communities?
