61,000 jobs lost in West Midlands during lockdown – with thousands more hanging in balance
Up to 61,000 jobs have been lost in the West Midlands during lockdown – with thousands more hanging in the balance.
Economic experts say the three-month shut down of businesses and trade has resulted in a catastrophic job shock, and could be far worse than the economic crash of 2008.
It comes as Royal Mail announced around 2,000 management jobs are being axed as it looks to slash costs in the face of the coronavirus crisis, and Collins Aerospace is proposing 255 redundancies at its two sites in Wolverhampton.
Hundreds of workers at Birmingham Airport will also be affected by large-scale job cuts announced by ground handling giant Swissport.
Earlier this week, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) launched a bid for £3.2 billion Government cash to kick-start the region’s economy post-Covid and avoid a disastrous down turn.
But regional bosses have now been told that as many as 61,000 jobs in the West Midlands have been axed as business folded and staff and self-employed workers signed on for Universal Credit.
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University of Birmingham’s Profession Simon Collinson said the area saw 90,000 jobs lost between 2008 and 2010 – 50,000 of which were in manufacturing.
And he warned this current situation will cut a lot deeper, not just in the West Midlands but across the whole country.
WMCA is the first authority to bid for Government cash and believes it will bring huge benefits for the region and beyond and enable it to go back to the healthy position it was in prior to lockdown.
Its blueprint is aimed at creating or safeguarding 135,000 jobs, building 35,000 homes and building on key business opportunities such as HS2, Commonwealth Games, Coventry’s City of Culture and investing in green technology and manufacturing.
Mayor Andy Street the money would help push “shovel ready” projects, such as reopening the Walsall to Wolverhampton rail line and further roll out of 5G over the line while also speeding up longer term schemes.
And bosses said they would continue to press for support for WMCA projects should this bid fail.
Professor Collinson said: “This is unprecedented so all the scenarios have a range of uncertainty around them.
“In 2008-2010, we had 90,000 job losses with 50,000 from manufacturing. We got hit hard then and this is going to be at a different scale.
“One scenario, and there are a variety of different scenarios, is a three-month lock down equates to around 61,000 jobs directly.
“Over the next year it’s going to be a lot more than that. It is a regional problem and a national problem.
Ambitious
“At a national level, we are looking at a pretty unprecedented level of employment and then knock on effects are going to hit those in the low income and lower skill areas.”
Mr Street added: “Nobody is kidding themselves that suddenly the Government is going to turn around and send a £3billion cheque next Tuesday.
“The critical thing is we do believe there are some things that need a swift response in here and will produce and safeguard jobs quickly.
“Literally, there is a mix of shovel ready projects and some that are going to take a little bit longer though. So we win the argument for them and then mobilise.
“They are big ideas for the future and that is very deliberate because we will keep pressing on these things.
“If you look back at the last few years, some things have taken a fair time to come to fruition but one of the great things about this region is we have stuck to the same script and that has won confidence in the Government and steadily won substantial investment.
“That’s exactly how we are going to play this. It’s a big ask. But I’m not going to apologise for that. It would be far worse for us to sit here and not be ambitious for our region.”
Councillor Ian Brookfield, portfolio holder for economy and innovation, said that they were going for 100 per cent of the cash but should they not receive all of it, they would prioritise.
He said: “We can all be parochial but I’m hoping we’re big enough to see the benefits to the people of the West Midlands.”
