Swindon

Swindon JSA claimant figures have increased by 0.1% this month from last. Total youth unemployment has remained the same in percentage terms from last month, although there are 15 more individuals this month than last.

Generally, Swindon is still static on its figures for JSA over the past few months, with slight rises in actual terms for youth unemployment since the summer (which would be expected at the end of an academic year). However, it is still lower than the October 2009 figure (1670 individuals).

Although Swindon has seen an upward trend in terms of the amount of JSA claimants since January 2009, the reverse is true to the regional and national picture.

Swindon bucks the trend as the South West rate has risen by approximately 0.8% since the recession began, peaking at a high of 3.2% at the beginning of 2010.

The national average has generally mirrored the regional picture, although at its peak in the spring/summer of 2009, there was around a 2% difference. It has also seen sharper overall inflections in data than the region, which suggested market confidence was picking up in the early stages of 2011 until the caution of a double-dip recession dented the resilience and deterred employers from creating new vacancies.

Wiltshire

Wiltshire’s unemployment performance during the recovery from recession has been particularly impressive. The proportion of the population on Job Seekers Allowance peaked at 2.6% in January 2010 and has since fallen and remained relatively stable at around 2%. November 2011 saw a marginal rise to 2.1%. This reflects better performance than the South West region and significantly better performance than the average across the UK.

An on-going concern relates to the volume of public sector job losses, with a further 3,000 forecast to be lost by 2015. In the current climate, private sector demand for labour is insufficient to absorb the growing supply of job seekers. With the support of SWLEP, the vibrancy of the private sector will lead Wiltshire through the transition to a ‘re-balanced’ economy with additional job creation, investment, exports and growth in the business stock.

However, during the transition, more experienced workers will inevitably compete with young people aged 16-24 for jobs. On a national basis, youth unemployment is a growing concern, with over 1 million young people looking for work in November 2011. The proportion of unemployed young people in Wiltshire climbed to 5.6% by November 2011 and the future prospects remain gloomy.  This demand led slowdown has resulted in employers being hesitant to create jobs but also hesitant to force redundancies. This has left a pool of largely involuntarily unemployed people, which is being addressed but will need to be closely monitored in future.