Local Unemployment Figures Among worst in County

Figures released in August show that the jobless totals for North Warwickshire continue to soar well above the national average, and are the second highest in the entire West Midlands. The year on year increase between July 2008 and July 2009 of people in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance stands at 144% for North Warwickshire.

This compares with 81% for the UK as a whole, and 102% for Warwickshire county. The West Midlands figure is only 74%.

The economic briefing document released by Warwickshire County Council says:

“The year-on-year percentage increase in North Warwickshire (+143.7%) was the second highest of all Local Authorities across the West Midlands Region. The monthly increase in JSA claimants in Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough was the third highest in the Region.” (Warwickshire County Council – Economy & Development Service & Warwickshire Observatory – Newsletter August 2009 Edition 8).

The Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for North Warwickshire & Bedworth, former Army officer Dan Byles, has been monitoring local performance and is concerned that both North Warwickshire and Nuneaton & Bedworth are continuing to perform worse than the national average.

Dan said: “Sadly, these latest figures show that we are continuing to lose more jobs here in North Warwickshire than the rest of the region, and than the UK as a whole.

“This recession is knocking us for six, and the Government have their head in the sand if they think they can just continue to dither and bumble along as they have been – more worried about Gordon Brown’s job than everyone else’s.

“These job losses represent real hardship in real families across North Warwickshire & Bedworth, and it makes me angry. I recognise that there is no magic bullet, but I left the Army to come into politics because I was fed up with politicians who are more worried about their expense claims and their second houses than they are about ordinary people.

“Now, we are seeing France, Germany and Japan all coming out of recession before us – despite Gordon Brown’s claims that the UK was somehow best placed to weather the storm. They have all managed to beat the recession without running up a trillion pounds of government debt.

“Gordon Brown cannot be part of the answer because he is part of the problem – he won’t even admit that his incontinent spending and his addition to debt have helped to cause this problem in the first place.