Part-time work helps cut unemployment rate in North East

Nov 12 2009 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

PART-TIME work is helping to cut the rate of unemployment in the North East, but could hinder the region's recovery from recession, it was claimed last night.

Jobless figures released yesterday show the number of people out of work in the region is down by 2,000 from 121,000 to 119,000.

But nationally, part-time employment increased by 86,000 to reach a record high of 7.66m, according to the Office of National Statistics.

There were 997,000 employees and self-employed people working part-time, which is the highest figure since records began in 1992.

And last night business chiefs warned that part-time staff making up a higher percentage of the region’s workforce could slow the North East’s recovery from recession.

Tony Sarginson, the regional external affairs manager of EEF, the manufacturing employers’ group, said: “There is an awful lot of people on short-term work and there are also a significant amount of people offering temporary contracts.

“That’s something that will have to take up the slack first. Until there is confidence in the employment market again it will be hard for employers to begin taking people on full-time again. The recovery will be slower for the market to get back to a decent rate of employment because of this trend.”

Rates of unemployment in the North East have dropped by 1.73% over the last three months to September as the region bucks the national trend, it was revealed last night.

However, the jobless rate in the region is the second highest in the country, with 9.5% of the region’s workforce unemployed.

Across the United Kingdom, unemployment rose by 30,000 over the same period, taking the number of working age people without jobs to 2.46m, which is the smallest rise since spring 2008.

There was a small increase of 6,000 in the number of people in work to almost 29m, the first quarterly rise since the summer of last year.

But full-time employment fell by 80,000 to 21m, while part-time employment increased by 86,000 to a record high of 7.6m.