Employment Opportunities for the Future
Blog / March 19, 2010 / Comment now
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week released unemployment figures for the United Kingdom. Unemployment for the three months to January is down by 33,000 compared with the three months prior to that. Over the last few years the recession has impacted on employment opportunities across the United Kingdom and across the North East. However, these figures are moving in the right direction and although the change is small it is positive news for the economy and for those seeking employment.
Last year many economists and other pundits were predicting that unemployment would reach 3 million or more, as it did during the last recession under the Tories. However, the positive action that Labour in government has taken has shown that there is a role for government in stimulating job creation and not leaving people to fight the recession on their own. As I mentioned in this blog a new North East £125m ‘super fund’ launched in January has been aimed at supporting hundreds of small and medium sized businesses to protect jobs.
Labour has also focused its attention on supporting young people through the recession. It was also in this blog that I outlined Labour’s commitment to ensure over 100,000 new opportunities for young people and guarantee people under 25 a job, training or work experience after six months of unemployment. This focused effort has yielded tangible results that can be seen in today’s ONS figures where the largest fall in claimants of JSA was in the age group of 18 – 24. Unfortunately the figures for the total claimant count in the Easington constituency showed a small increase of 29 since January 2010. There are however prospects for the future that we can look forward to.
A good news story for the North East and for Easington is the announcement this month that the GT Group, based in Peterlee, is safeguarding 200 jobs and creating a further 200 jobs after it secured £200 million worth of new orders going into the future. The company has been supported with a grant of £2 million from the regional development agency One North East.
Geoff Turnbull, MD GT Group, Alan Cummins, Easington NUM Lodge Secretary, Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Edna Connor, Horden Parish Councillor, Audrey Laing, Chair Easington CLP.
Group chairman Geoff Turnbull said:
“With the EU and international governments imposing tough regulations on transport emissions, vehicle manufacturers around the world are sourcing new technologies to deliver improved vehicle performance and environmental sustainability.
“We have now achieved a massive £200m of forward sales for these products after years of sustained investment in research and development.
“The major investment programme that we are about to undertake would have been very difficult without the assistance of One North East and Durham County Council, both of which have shown a real commitment to ensuring our business has the support it requires to be a pioneer in this important technology.”
With today’s announcement from Nissan that they will build their new model, the Nissan Leaf, in Sunderland comes more good news for jobs in the North East. This decision was again supported by Labour in government with a grant of over £20 million forming part of the deal. The new model of car will run entirely on lithium-ion batteries.
Lord Mandelson has said:
“By working together we can achieve our aim of making the UK a world-leader in ultra-low carbon vehicles.”
