Unemployment falls in Shropshire

The unemployment figure for the West Midlands – which includes Shropshire – was down to 168,000 for the three months to May – 5.7 per cent of the region's working population.

Britain saw a record 356,000 jump in the number of workers on payrolls last month and vacancies soared as the economy recovered, official figures show.

In the West Midlands the number in employment in the quarter rose to 2.77 million – 59.1 per cent.

The Office for National Statistics said payroll figures rose for the seventh month in a row between May and June, while firms hired at a blistering pace after indoor hospitality reopened ahead of the final lifting of restrictions on July 19.

The increase in payrolled workers was the biggest since those records began in 2014.

There were 862,000 job vacancies between April and June– 77,500 above the first quarter of 2020 and passing pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to the ONS.

The figures also show that the jobless rate dropped once more, to 4.8 per cent between March and May, against five per cent from December to February.

But the ONS also said that, despite seven months of increases, the number of payrolled workers has still fallen by 206,000 since the pandemic hit.

Numbers claiming unemployment benefits, including Universal Credit, fell across the region in June.

Across the West Midlands there were 242,705 claiming – 6.6 per cent of the working population. It was down 12,650 from May.

In Shropshire the number claiming fell by 645 to 7,170 (3.8 per cent) with Telford and Wrekin down by 355 at 5,850 (5.2 per cent).

Powys saw a drop of 305 to 2,715 (3.6 per cent).

Steve Orton, DWP customer service leader for Shropshire, said: "Locally we have a great number of jobs through the Kickstart scheme, with incredible variety of roles and sectors – administration, retail, creative, social care, hospitality and food as well as IT and construction.

"We currently have almost 400 vacancies available for 18-24 year olds across the county and up to today 369 young people have started a Kickstart opportunity across the county.

"Although the total number of people claiming hasn’t changed there is a great deal of movement in people moving onto benefits and off them into work.

"We have recruited many new work coaches in our Jobcentre Plus offices in Shropshire to ensure that everyone gets the help they need to move in to the jobs that are available."

Minister for Employment Mims Davies said: “In the past year we have supported over 14.5 million people across the country through our Plan for Jobs including through the Kickstart scheme. We know that it’s not been possible to save every job, but we have protected as many as we can, whilst helping new jobseekers through our DWP programmes to secure work.

“There is still work to do as today’s figures show, but importantly we’re on the right track and pushing for recovery – with a sustained rise in the number of people on payrolls, including 135,000 more young people in work this month, and another rise in vacancies on offer as we continue on our road map."

British Chambers of Commerce head of economics, Suren Thiru, said: “The significant rise in payroll employment suggests that UK jobs market continued to improve as the economy gradually reopened.

“Surging demand for labour amid the economy unlocking, the rapid vaccine rollout and continued government support helped drive higher payroll employment in June, despite the delay to the end of the road map.

“The rise in vacancies confirms the ongoing struggle to hire staff. The recruitment difficulties faced by firms go well beyond temporary bottlenecks and with many facing an increasing skills gap, staff shortages may drag on any recovery."