Jobs test appeal to the coalition government

Jun 17 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

THE coalition Government must apply a “North East jobs test” before making any further spending cuts, business leaders said last night.

The North East Chamber of Commerce fears cuts to the region’s large public sector could mean fewer contracts for private sector employers.

And they want this risk to be considered via an “employment recovery test” as ministers head towards next week’s Budget.

Their call came as the latest unemployment figures revealed a decrease of 0.8% in the North East between February and April to 119,000. The 1,000 fall took the jobless rate to 9.3% in the region.

Across the country, however, the scale of the jobs crisis facing the Government was underlined.

Nationwide, unemployment neared 2.5 million and the number of economically inactive people reached a record high of more than eight million.

Local authorities in the North East alone are predicting cuts of more than £800m to capital spending over the next three years, potentially affecting 17,000 jobs in the construction sector alone.