Unemployment in Birmingham

[sefton66]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8665062.stm

Land Rover are creating 275 jobs at its Solihull plant with immediate start

[BrummieLad]

Originally Posted by soapbox

WTF? Read up on your history!

Birmingham is an immigrant city and always has been - how else could a small hamlet on the River Rea have grown so spectacularly - it certainly wasn't form natural growth. Birmingham has welcomed (internal and external) immigration for centuries - and benefitted from it.

The ethnic groups commented on in that article are mostly second-generation in terms of population, and so not immigrants anyway - but the vast majority of their parents came to the UK because we invited them to - to fill the gap in employment in post-war boom years, and to do the jobs the locals didn't and to do - and without them Birmingham's industry would have started its decline a few decades earlier.

Similarly our hospitals would grind to a halt without immigration form all over the world. We wouldn't have enough doctors and nurses.

The problems with unemployment in Birmingham and Britain at large have not been caused by immigration. High unemployment amongst minority ethnic groups is not a sign that they can't or won't contribute to our society - it is a reflection - as with unemployment in general - of the crap way successive governments have managed education and skills as well as the economy. It's also a reflection of how we took our eyes off the ball. In the fifties and sixties we seemed to be in an unassailable position economically. Then we p*ssed away that advantage.

I hate this attitude that immigrants are useful when we need them, but when the going gets tough they can 'eff off.

Exactly, some people are hypocrits, this election is showing people's true colours, and they're not very mixed I can definately say.

[feltip]

Birmingham City Council Chief Executive fighting the corner for Birmingham being a base for Whitehall moves.

We really need all who can to bang the drum for any relocations to come here.

Birmingham is ready to take on Whitehall tasks
Published: May 7 2010 03:00 | Last updated: May 7 2010 03:00

From Mr Stephen Hughes.

Sir, Your article, “Move civil service jobs offshore, parties urged” (May 3), highlights some important points relating to driving efficiency in Whitehall. It doesn’t, however, paint a full picture.

Ian Smith, in his recent report “Relocation: transforming where and how government works”, outlined how up to 15,000 civil service jobs could be relocated out of London in the next five years. He did not, however, suggest that such a move should mean offshoring roles to far-off lands.

...
As a city Birmingham is well placed to attract relocated departments due to its proximity to London; its appreciation of the challenges Whitehall faces; and its track record of welcoming public sector organisations to the city.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4568e9de-5...44feab49a.html

[sefton66]

UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES: West Midlands: Down 4,000 to 249,000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7789784.stm

Updated version Birmingham still holds 4 of the top 5 unemployed area but they have dropped from last month.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

One report from the BBC says 30% claiming JSA in some parts of Brum, the Excel file on the link above has 10-11%. *sigh*

[sefton66]

I think thats more to do with crap reporting lol, I've heard its something like 29.3% people in birmingham are economically inactive and the jobless rate is around the 9% mark

[sefton66]

Unemployment in Birmingham has fallen, unemployment in the West Midlands Area has fallen by 20,000, We still hold 4 of the Top 5 highest job seeker claimant areas in the UK but they are coming down. Check the BBC Unemployment Tracker: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7789784.stm

[feltip]

Economic study puts Birmingham on brink of 'struggling' status
Jun 20 2010 By Paul Dale

Birmingham is perilously close to falling into the “struggling cities” category where house prices, job creation and economic wealth are significantly below average, according to an academic study.

More than 61,000 private sector jobs disappeared from the city between 1998 and 2008, research by the Centre for Cities has revealed.

Almost 125,000 jobs would have to be created to bring Birmingham up to the average level for employment opportunities. As things stand, Birmingham has the third-worst employment rate of any English city.

And while the report shows that economic growth in London and the south of England far outstrips the Midlands and the North, several of Birmingham’s rival cities are performing surprisingly well. Manchester managed to create a net figure of 33,700 jobs in the decade to 2008, Leeds 25,400 and Newcastle 24,200.

The West Midlands, meanwhile, was the only region in England to record a net loss during the same period – with 65,600 jobs, 3.7 per cent of the total, disappearing. By contrast, the East Midlands enjoyed a 3.1 per cent increase.

The report makes the point that, even when the economy was buoyant, Birmingham failed to take full advantage.

The figures are in line with research by Advantage West Midlands which has pointed to a productivity gap of more than £10 billion between the region and the average for England.

Roger Philips, chairman of the under-threat West Midlands Leaders’ Board representing 33 councils including Birmingham, admitted that the economic outlook for the region remains difficult.

Coun Philips (Con Herefordshire) added: “It is very worrying that we were the only region to record a net loss of jobs over the past 10 years.

“That’s why my colleagues and I on the Leaders’ Board are determined to put in place the right measures to boost growth.

“We have a duty to scrutinise the performance of Advantage West Midlands and we shall continue to do so.”

Centre for Cities researchers placed English cities in league tables based on economic performance. Buoyant cities, with above-average job creation, included London, Milton Keynes and Cambridge.

Birmingham just falls into the second group, stable cities, but on the scoring basis used is described as being “vulnerable” and is close to joining Bolton, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Hull, Blackburn, Birkenhead, Burnley and Stoke as struggling cities.

Gross Value Added, the Government’s measure of economic output, rose by only 2.3 per cent in Birmingham between 1998 and 2008. The figure was almost twice as high in the best-performing cities.

The relatively small improvement in economic output, below the national average, contrasts with the official image as portrayed by the city council between 2004 and 2008, which was to present Birmingham as a strongly performing city with robust job creation and huge growth in the professional services sector. In fact, the continuing decline in manufacturing appears to have wiped out most of the gains from jobs in finance and legal services.

Describing the scale of the challenge as “enormous”, the report warns that the Government’s anticipated public spending clamp down will result in thousands of jobs being lost in the public sector – one area where Birmingham has seen expansion in recent years. The study urges the Government to invest more in private sector growth but to be realistic about what can be achieved.

The paper adds: “Even cities that have experienced a net decline in private sector jobs have a significant amount of sustainable private sector activity that is worth supporting. The most obvious example is Birmingham. Although it lost about 60,000 jobs from its private sector between 1998 and 2008, it still had an economy that provided employment for about 750,000 private sector workers even after this decline.”

The report concludes that the previous government’s New Deal policies, which saw more than £100 million invested in Birmingham, failed to have much impact on job creation. Birmingham has the fifth highest worklessness rate of any city today, behind Liverpool, Barnsley, Sunderland and Hull.

Neither is Centre for Cities impressed by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. The report suggests that many of the jobs that have come on stream since 1998 would have been created even without AWM.

Speaking in Birmingham last week, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said the Government would scrap the current regional development agency system, which sees £200 million being administered by AWM.

Instead it would bring in partnerships between councils and businesses in the area to look after the region’s economic well-being.

Tim Huxtable, Birmingham’s new cabinet member for regeneration, said the city was feeling the impact of the “worldwide slowdown”.

Coun Huxtable (Con Bournville) said: “It is in the private sector we must seek to base future growth. Birmingham has some great selling points for private sector investors; our job is to sell these benefits around the world, while helping existing businesses diversify the services and products they offer.”

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/w...5233-26696377/

[Erebus555]

I suspect it's the hangover from the loss of manufacturing in the city. We're still losing a lot of jobs in this sector, where positions were mainly for low-skilled with poor educational attainment. These don't create great prospects in the future for re-employing people like that.

I really don't think there will be a quick fix to this either. This sort of thing will be passed onto the kids and their kids...

[Engels]

Manufacturing employment and the impact it has on the wider West Mids employment figures will pretty much have bottomed out after this recession. This was a once in a generation scale recession and coming out of it the survivors (businesses) will prosper - much of the evidence of employment growth over the last 6 months suggests that in the West Mids unemployment is falling faster than elsewhere in the UK.

It's tempting to look at the past and simply extrapolate to the future but when you think about it there is not more decline that can be had in west mids manufacturing employment. It's already so low that growth looks a much more likely scenario but even if it continued to fall so much has gone so far that it could never have the same proportional effect as say the loss of Rover had.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

+1 more unemployed to Brum. Add me to the list.

[feltip]

Originally Posted by Erebus555

I suspect it's the hangover from the loss of manufacturing in the city. We're still losing a lot of jobs in this sector, where positions were mainly for low-skilled with poor educational attainment. These don't create great prospects in the future for re-employing people like that.

I really don't think there will be a quick fix to this either. This sort of thing will be passed onto the kids and their kids...

Definitely Erebus.

There was an article in the Birmingham Post, either last week or week before, talking of the two cities in one of Birmingham.

While we try and encourage skilled workers and graduates to stay we also need to find basic jobs for those not skilled and jobless and then equip them with vocational training and upskilling to enable them to work their way up. We will not fill many of the skilled vacancies we want to create with our own citizens as it stands as many are unskilled and need that first step onto the ladder.

It's crucial we have that mix of different employment types from the public sector / private sector and low end to high end. We've got massive potential with youngest city in UK and lots of colleges and universities but we need to also encourage independent business, start ups and entrepreneurs and extend the creativity for example in the Jewellery Quarter and Digbeth to other areas where we have real talents and experience.

[feltip]

The public sector employment map of Britain
Public sector workers are in the firing line. Find out how much they contribute to your economy

Whatever George Osborne announces in his budget tomorrow, life is about to get a lot tougher for Britain's six million or so public sector workers.

Where the public sector cuts will fall is to be announced. But much of the recent rise in unemployment statistics has been countered by rising employment in the public sector.

...
In Crawley, Sussex, only 12% of the workforce rely on the public sector for employment. But in Oxford nearly 50,000 people work in the public sector - 46% of the workforce. In Birmingham, that number is 156,000, or 32% of the workforce. It is perhaps no coincidence that Birmingham Ladywood has the highest claimant count rate in Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...statistics-map

[SimonTheSoundMan]

50,000 in Oxford work in the public sector. :S

If you take out the 40,000 students, what have you left after you also count children and those who have retired.

[loudrocksurfer]

looks like Heart West Midlands DJ Dave Clarke is to lose his job as his show is being replaced by networked show from London on 28th June after Global Radio are cutting 33 stations to 15 around the UK

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6026

[rob_right]

Originally Posted by loudrocksurfer

looks like Heart West Midlands DJ Dave Clarke is to lose his job as his show is being replaced by networked show from London on 28th June after Global Radio are cutting 33 stations to 15 around the UK

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6026

Interesting that BRMB are trying to take the station in completely the opposite direction to make it more local - ie back to what it used to be and hence why it was popular with a much greater number of listeners. Global Radio are obviously ran by accountants with no real understanding of what their customers want!

http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.5996

[Engels]

The public sector employment map of Britain
Public sector workers are in the firing line. Find out how much they contribute to your economy

Originally Posted by feltip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...statistics-map

That map shows the West Mids isn't too badly off as a Region in the circumstances.

[marmite747]

Public Sector employment is really quite false. Having a large Public Sector shows that the economy is failing and there is no private initiative - one example being France.

But I think it's pretty shocking how concentrated Public Sector work is - it makes certain areas reliant.

As for unemployment, I've noticed an increase in the number of jobs available - but there are about 10 times as many people applying for them than a few years ago. It's ridiculous.

I think increasing VAT to 20% is a very very risky and foolish thing to do - its going to really wipe out any growth in retail come new year - but it'll probably cause the biggest post-christmas rush in sales we've ever had this year as people make those big purchases early to avoid the tax.

[NewTroll]

Originally Posted by Engels

That map shows the West Mids isn't too badly off as a Region in the circumstances.

It seems to show the major centres of population (Brum and Coventry and I think Wolves) having a 30-39% of employees in the public sector. Plus papers written over the years have shown how many private sector jobs have gone in these places. This makes some places reliant on state funded jobs.

Cities will no doubt have more public sector employees as they tend to be places where large organisations set up & also require large organisations such as Universities & Hospitals, etc. I.E Coventry's hospital is really the main hospital for Rugby, North Warwickshire and South Warwickshire...

... but the region is not doing very well at all, having missed out on the high-tech industries almost completely (Even moreso now that Marconi have gone) and has a dwindling automotive sector. Centre for Cities report claims that the best strategy might be to stop throwing money at "struggling" cities (That are struggling for a number of reasons, such as lack of skills) and concentrate on areas like Milton Keynes and Reading...

In reality, the UK has not really grown much for 50 years, which is why we struggle with these booms and busts. Labour spend a fortune on services and giving cash away to babies and pregnant women, it runs out, someone has to tax us all to get back as industry isn't growing, then Labour get back in and spend spend spend in a credit bubble... yadda yadda. It's been going on for decades. We need to either create growth in industry (Which doesn't seem to be working) or have to go down the route of having high taxes to pay for all these public services we want.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Originally Posted by marmite747

I think increasing VAT to 20% is a very very risky and foolish thing to do - its going to really wipe out any growth in retail come new year - but it'll probably cause the biggest post-christmas rush in sales we've ever had this year as people make those big purchases early to avoid the tax.

People weren't running to the tills when VAT rose form 15% to 17.5%.