ALMOST one in ten people are now on the dole across the West Midlands, according to shock new figures.
Joblessness in the region jumped by 27,000 to 265,000 in the three months to January, an unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent.
The increase, revealed yesterday, was the second-highest percentage rise in the country and the highest in terms of sheer numbers of people.
Christine Braddock, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said: “Although we are not surprised by the latest figures, they are extremely worrying.”
And Roger McKenzie, UNISON assistant general secretary, said: “Once again the unemployment figures tell a very sorry tale for the West Midlands.”
There was more bad news as it emerged that more than 500 Government civil servants in Birmingham were “staring down the barrel of long-term unemployment” – costing the city’s economy an estimated £15 million.
The Public and Commercial Services Union(PCS) revealed the scale of the cutbacks facing Advantage West Midlands, the Government Office West Midlands and Ofwat.
AWM will lose all but a handful of its 300-strong workforce by September prior to closure next March, the majority of the Government Office’s 220 staff have already left and water regulator Ofwat’s Birmingham HQ faces losing up to 100 jobs.
Andrew Lloyd, Birmingham-based regional secretary for the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “Between Advantage West Midlands, the Government Office and Ofwat, we estimate the impact on Birmingham will be the loss of something like £15 million. All these people spend money in pubs, restaurants and newsagents. It’s an awful picture – there is nowhere for these people to go, they are staring down the barrel of long-term unemployment.”
