Job losses in the UK not evenly shared

April 14th, 2009 by admin | Filed under Debt, Recession, UK Small Business, UK employment.

Despite forecasts to the contrary, recent figures show that unemployment in the major cities of the UK are much higher than that of London, the capital city, on a percentage basis. The figures make for some interesting reading, especially as estimates on future job losses were based on the general assumption that with the virtual collapse of the largely London based financial services industry, the city would be the hardest hot.

Yet the figures show different, with Birmingham, the industrial capital of the UK being the hardest hit, with unemployment levels rising from 5% of the potential work force to 7.3% making for an increase of 12,383 job losses (33,274 in February 2008 to 45,657 in February 2009.

Other major industrial centres suffered from similar percentage downturns in unemployment, according to the list below:

Hull: Increase from 4.8% to 8% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 8,062 to 13,366)
Liverpool: Increase from 5.3% to 7% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 15,208 to 20,055)
Glasgow: Increase from 3.7% to 5.2% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 14,403 to 20,276)
Manchester: Increase from 3.4% to 5.1% from corresponding month in 2008 (from10,836 to 16,069)
Bradford: Increase from 3% to 4.7% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 9,242 to 14,321)
Leeds: Increase from 2.5% to 4.3% from corresponding month in 2008 (12,628 to 21,558)
Sheffield: Increase from 2.5% to 4.1% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 8,463 to 14,017)
Bristol: Increase from 1.8% to 3.5% from corresponding month in 2008 (from 5,057 to 9,771 )

The figures show that unemployment continues to be focused in the north of the country, and especially in geographical regions and sectors of the economy which had always been hardest hit even in times of plenty.

Even after the economy begins to turn around, the future will continue to look bleak in the traditional manufacturing and heavy industry sectors, experts say.

Hopes are that Alasdair Darling will address these issues in his forthcoming budget, and set aside a portion of his economic stimulus cake on creating innovative and long term solutions for the chronic unemployment issues that has pervaded the major Northern population centres through good times and bad.

Currently the unemployment figures give little cause for encouragement, with the number of those joining the jobless queue increasing by 165,000 to 2.03 million, according to figures issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).