THE only thing more shocking than last week’s employment statistics for the North East was the lack of any meaningful reaction from the Government to the bleakest figures since 1997.
The mantra-like repetition of the “fact” that the Government is on the right track with its economic policy is just nuts – repeated denials that the policy is wrong despite increasingly blatant and growing evidence to the contrary.
The key points of the Office for National Statistics bulletin features the North East in every one – and not in a good way. The region endures the lowest employment rate, 65.9%, the highest unemployment rate, 10.7%, the highest claimant count and highest levels of economic inactivity.
The claimant count is higher than any region since 1999 and is now higher than at the peak of the recession, while the employment rate is almost 10 percentage points behind the regions with the highest rate of employment. It follows a fall of 2.1% on the last quarter, while the unemployment rate reached a 14-year high, up a further 1.3% since the February to April report.
These figures make desperately depressing reading. People in the North East know more than most what the experience of mass and long-term unemployment means. Most rational predictions suggest it will get worse and it will be a long time before it gets any better.
This economic profile is associated with a whole host of problems, from increasing health inequalities, social deprivation, community dislocation to other social challenges such as increasing domestic violence (which is already happening) and family crises across the piece.
In the face of this, it is appalling to see such detached complacency demonstrated in the lack of any reaction from ministers – other than to emphasise how “right” the current policy is.
Even the International Monetary Fund is suggesting there is a case for rethinking the current economic strategy – but there’s little indication that this will happen. In fact, just a day after the employment statistics were released the Prime Minister’s favourite think tank suggested scrapping JobCentre Plus.
This notion is entirely in line with the self-defeating policy of dismissing thousands of tax collecting staff while literally billions of pounds of taxes go uncollected or avoided; or abolishing a successful regional development agency just when you need effective strategies to deliver economic growth. You couldn’t make this up – analogies to lunatics and asylums spring to mind.
:: Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC
