Unemployment in Birmingham

[sefton66]

welcome news

Solihull firm LaSer UK lands Asda cashback contract
By Enda Mullen Aug 3 2012

More than 100 jobs are to be created at Solihull-based LaSer UK after the firm struck a deal with Asda to launch the country’s first supermarket cashback credit card.

The partnership is likely to see the creation of a further 100-plus jobs at the store card specialist for the retail sector to service the Asda contract over its five-year lifespan.

The new jobs will be created at the company’s Solihull call centre where it will manage customer services for the card.

Chief executive Stephen Hunt said: “What you will see with the Asda business over the next few months is that we will be taking on at least 100 extra people to service that account.


“We are currently in the launch phase but headcount will increase by about 100. And over the life of the programme with Asda – set to be five years – we will see the volume of people we need to service that increase by about another 100.

“The Asda project will probably double the size of our card business in the UK and gives the opportunity to create new jobs.”

The Asda deal represents the latest step in a phase of rapid growth for LaSer UK both in terms of business and jobs and Mr Hunt said at least one other big deal was in the pipeline.

It currently employs around 500 people at its Solihull town centre site and another 200 in Belfast, with at least 200 jobs created over the last three to four years.

Although many of the new jobs will be created in LaSer UK’s Solihull call centre Mr Hunt said he was keen to get away from the negative associations such roles sometimes have.

“A lot of roles are within the customer service area,” he said. “And one of the things I have been very keen on is trying to make people aware that working for a call centre doesn’t have to be a negative thing.

“We’ve invested quite a lot in the environment, training and working with the community to try and create a good environment to come to work.

“One of the things I wanted to see when we took people on was that eventually we would see people moving on around the business.

“We have had people who have moved into marketing, finance and even into the legal area.

“It is important for us as an employer to show people there are opportunities in the organisation no matter what role you come into.”

Asda has joined a host of household names working with LaSer UK that includes Flybe, Dell, Sony, Selfridges & Co, Dixons Retail, Sharps, DFS, Dreams and Ultralase.

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[johnblack5410]

How about not wasting loads of money on a pointless VAT cut...

[Brum X]

UNEMPLOYMENT across the West Midlands went up in the last three months despite a fall nationally.

Across the region 8.8 per cent of people remained out of work between May and July, an increase of around 0.5 per cent, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

National unemployment fell to 8.1 per cent as the jobless total fell by 7,000 to 2.59 million.

The ONS warned the drop could have been a ‘bump’ effect caused by the Olympics while Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the rise in the Midlands was evidence talk of an economic recovery was premature.

He said: ““For families suffering the misery of unemployment, any decrease will be welcome news, but it is clear when you look at the bigger economic picture that any talk of growth is premature.

“In areas such as Yorkshire and Humberside, and the West Midlands – where unemployment is among the highest – unemployment continues to go up, meaning yet more misery for families.”



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[Aaronj09]

Isn't it funny how Yorkshire and the West Midlands recorded two of the largest falls in unemployment earlier this year, but are now recording the highest increases? Bizarre, don't you think?

[LNGCats]

Originally Posted by Aaronj09

Isn't it funny how Yorkshire and the West Midlands recorded two of the largest falls in unemployment earlier this year, but are now recording the highest increases? Bizarre, don't you think?

Shows you should never take any single set of figures as being very meaningful and you need to look at longer term trends over several months / quarters.

[Aylett 67]

Until the mid seventies Birmingham and Coventry were classed as boom towns with plenty of reasonably paid manual jobs in factories and steelworks and this explains why the cities were popular with commonwealth immigrants in the sixties, many took the jobs that were unfilled by white men due to lower wages like public transport. However, the decline of the area's industries after 1975 and the collapse of companies like Chrysler UK and Rover has hit the area hard.

[Aylett 67]

Just to add, the figures for unemployment only cover those claiming benefits, you can add three percentage points on the stats to cover all those registered as unemployed, which would give Birmingham a figure of 13.7 pc. Where I live now in Cumbria, the unemployment rate shows as 3.6 per cent, but the overall figure is 6.6 pc.

[Aaronj09]

Originally Posted by LNGCats

Shows you should never take any single set of figures as being very meaningful and you need to look at longer term trends over several months / quarters.

Very true. The NW for example kept on recording the highest increase earlier in the year, as did the NE, now both are recording declines, even more so than the SE (which actually recorded a rise recently).

For anyone interested, Sheffield Hallam University published 'the real unemployment' for every district in the country, except Northern Irish ones.

http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/the...yment-2012.pdf

[LNGCats]

Originally Posted by Aaronj09

Very true. The NW for example kept on recording the highest increase earlier in the year, as did the NE, now both are recording declines, even more so than the SE (which actually recorded a rise recently).

For anyone interested, Sheffield Hallam University published 'the real unemployment' for every district in the country, except Northern Irish ones.

http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/the...yment-2012.pdf

Odd, when people don't consider the shit from their city to be better than the shit from other cities they tend to agree with me.

Others accuse me of trolling.

[NewTroll]

Originally Posted by Aylett 67

Until the mid seventies Birmingham and Coventry were classed as boom towns with plenty of reasonably paid manual jobs in factories and steelworks and this explains why the cities were popular with commonwealth immigrants in the sixties, many took the jobs that were unfilled by white men due to lower wages like public transport. However, the decline of the area's industries after 1975 and the collapse of companies like Chrysler UK and Rover has hit the area hard.

In the early seventies Coventry had some of the highest wages in the UK. Chrysler UK (Who bought Rootes) was sold to Peugeot (After shedding thousands of jobs), but other large companies shed thousands of jobs - Alfred Herbert, Wickman, British Leyland, and GEC.

I don't know abut Brum, but Coventry's employment was heavily reliant on these companies and there was nothing else to take up the slack (The city's service industry was particularly weak.)

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by Brum X

“In areas such as Yorkshire and Humberside, and the West Midlands – where unemployment is among the highest – unemployment continues to go up, meaning yet more misery for families.”

Erm, the figure for May to July show a 7,000 increase, and the majority of that was in July, it had been decreasing before that from the start of the year, so where has it "continued to go up?", the blokes talking rubbish and trying to make political gain out of the situation as usual (as all politicians do).

People forget how badly the summer started economically, we are probably a little better off now than in July, but the end of the Olympics will see a national increase I would have thought, but mainly affecting the London and the SE.

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

In the early seventies Coventry had some of the highest wages in the UK. Chrysler UK (Who bought Rootes) was sold to Peugeot (After shedding thousands of jobs), but other large companies shed thousands of jobs - Alfred Herbert, Wickman, British Leyland, and GEC.

I don't know abut Brum, but Coventry's employment was heavily reliant on these companies and there was nothing else to take up the slack (The city's service industry was particularly weak.)

Well GEC was a massive employer in Brum as it was around the country. It's first purpose built factory was built in Witton. Electric Avenue where it was built is still there and is now an industrial/business park,

Thankfully we still have remnants of British Leyland in Jaguar and Land Rover, obviously the other major sections, Rover and LDV, have now gone.

We also had Lucas Industries until 1996 when it merged with an American firm Varity and become LucasVarity, and that was when a lot of the larger sites closed down as the yanks tried to move the HQ to the US, but failed, TRW then took them over, which then split into TRW Aeronautics (which was Lucas Aeronautics) and TRW Automotive, hence why the TRW Automotive HQ is in Solihull, Lucas' old HQ. TRW Aeronautics was then sold to Goodrich, which is why there are so many Goodrich sites in the West Midlands now.

And then too close the circle, Metro Cammell train makers, which was sold to GEC-Alsthom (Yes part of GEC) in 1989, Alstom as they become known closed the site in 2005.

What a terrible year for job loses 2005 was in Brum.

[Aylett 67]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

In the early seventies Coventry had some of the highest wages in the UK. Chrysler UK (Who bought Rootes) was sold to Peugeot (After shedding thousands of jobs), but other large companies shed thousands of jobs - Alfred Herbert, Wickman, British Leyland, and GEC.

I don't know abut Brum, but Coventry's employment was heavily reliant on these companies and there was nothing else to take up the slack (The city's service industry was particularly weak.)

Coventry was built around the motor industry, aerospace and electrical engineering. I lived for six weeks close to where the old Triumph factory was in Canley, which employed 10,000 workers at its peak, and which was just a field by 1990. However, even in 1990, the car industry was still big in Coventry- Rover had its HQ in Coventry, Jaguar had three factories and Peugeot had two- these are all gone now.

[NewTroll]

Originally Posted by Aylett 67

Coventry was built around the motor industry, aerospace and electrical engineering. I lived for six weeks close to where the old Triumph factory was in Canley, which employed 10,000 workers at its peak, and which was just a field by 1990. However, even in 1990, the car industry was still big in Coventry- Rover had its HQ in Coventry, Jaguar had three factories and Peugeot had two- these are all gone now.

Days were numbered, though. Coventry's car plants were mainly assembly, too small for modern use and surplus to requirements. The Marconi debacle pretty much finished the telecoms equipment industry in Coventry (and took with it a large base of sofrware and hardware design and development) and Courtaulds is now all long gone. The last fragment closed down last year.

A big loss was when the design and r&d centres were lost. When Peugeot bought Chrysler they moved it all to Paris (JLR now use the site as the Jaguar HQ). They still have their UK HQ at Stoke, though (Also Citreon's UK HQ)

The aircraft industy in Coventry virtually collapsed in the 1960s. The car industry was used to absord the losses, but even that was starting to show signs of the impending collapse.

[Aylett 67]

Originally Posted by NewTroll

Days were numbered, though. Coventry's car plants were mainly assembly, too small for modern use and surplus to requirements. The Marconi debacle pretty much finished the telecoms equipment industry in Coventry (and took with it a large base of sofrware and hardware design and development) and Courtaulds is now all long gone. The last fragment closed down last year.

A big loss was when the design and r&d centres were lost. When Peugeot bought Chrysler they moved it all to Paris (JLR now use the site as the Jaguar HQ). They still have their UK HQ at Stoke, though (Also Citreon's UK HQ)

The aircraft industy in Coventry virtually collapsed in the 1960s. The car industry was used to absord the losses, but even that was starting to show signs of the impending collapse.

Problem was the products were falling behind their rivals in the seventies and early eighties. Jaguar came close to collapse under British Leyland, the product quality slumped, industrial relations were terrible and the company ceased to have independent managers after 1972. Triumph suffered from the decision in British Leyland to concentrate on Rover to produce its large executive car, while cars like the Dolomite and Spitfire were allowed to grow old and fall behind the competition. Also the once excellent Rootes Group steadily declined under Chrysler and ended up as a branch plant assembling Peugeots. All in all a sorry tale for a city that was like the British Detroit in the sixties.
However, what remains in Solihull is really doing well. Jaguar has recovered from its nightmare years and has never been in better shape and Land Rover's new products are selling like hot cakes.

[Brum X]

The West Midlands was the only English region to see unemployment rise in the last quarter as more than 5,000 people were added to the jobless list.

The total number of people out of work in the region stood at 233,000 during the three months from June to August, which represents a rate of 8.6 per cent.

Unemployment fell or remained the same in every other English region – but increased in Scotland and Northern Ireland – as UK-wide joblessness fell by 50,000 in the same period to 2.53 million, the lowest since the spring, giving a rate of 7.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of people in work in the UK has reached a record high, although more are in part-time jobs than ever, official figures revealed.

[sefton66]

yet...

Greater Birmingham outperforms rivals in job creation, according to ONS report
by Graeme Brown, Birmingham Post Oct 25 2012

New data shows businesses in Greater Birmingham have out-performed the UK average in terms of creating new jobs.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown that the area experienced an increase in private sector employment of 16,300 between September 2010 and September 2011.

The report suggests that private sector employment in the Local Enterprise Partnership area increased 2.6 per cent, which outperformed the UK average of 0.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, employment grew by 1.1 per cent in the Coventry and Warwickshire region over the same period, and by 0.6 per cent in the Worcestershire LEP area.


At the same time, employment fell by 0.1 per cent in the Greater Manchester LEP region, 0.7 per cent in the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP area and by 3.2 per cent in the Black Country LEP region.

The increase was driven by a rise in business, professional and financial services which enjoyed a growth of 15,300 and helped to offset a decrease in employment in retail of 6,500 and computer programming, consultancy and related industries of 3,500.

Andy Street, GBS LEP chairman, said: “It’s always important to take care when interpreting figures, but it’s equally important that the activity the LEP and its partners are undertaking is set against a background of measures.

"It is still too early for us to see the impact LEP programmes and initiatives are having on employment, particularly as the figures we are looking at are a snapshot of what was happening 12 months ago.

“However, it is encouraging to see the LEP area performing well in a number of key areas and it is important we can see sectors that are not performing so well in order to influence policy.

“We have set challenging targets of creating 100,000 jobs by 2020 and it is going to be important for us to measure the progress being made.”

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[NeilM]

Taking both the above news stories, it seems the reason for the small rise in unemployment in the West Midlands is down to the Black Country overall.

[Brum X]

A small fall, but at least its a fall in Unemployment.


Jobless figures are falling in the West Midlands – offering a festive ‘glimmer of hope’ for the local economy.

Latest statistics for unemployment across the region shows a fall of 1,000 to 236,000, raising hopes of an upturn for recruitment in the run-up to Christmas.



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