Taskforce to tackle West Midlands' rising unemployment rate
A taskforce is being launched to tackle the crisis of unemployment across the West Midlands.
Ian Brookfield, leader of Wolverhampton Council, will chair the organisation on behalf of the West Midlands Combined Authority.
It will help employers take on new workers through apprenticeships and the Government’s Kickstart Scheme.
And it will attempt to bring in new investment into the region, with new business and infrastructure projects creating new jobs.
Unemployment has risen dramatically during the pandemic and the end of furlough leave many more without work.
Figures for the three months to October showed 161,000 people unemployed in our region – a rate of 5.5 per cent and a jump of 20 per cent on the spring when coronavirus first arrived.
That figure continues to rise and Councillor Brookfield said: “The reason for the taskforce is to create jobs and find the right training for people. Jobs will be made an absolute priority for the whole of the West Midlands. We know how difficult the problem is.
“If we can reduce those percentages over the next six to 12 months, the taskforce will have done its job. Twelve months ago, West Midlands unemployment was one of the lowest in the country. We were starting to go in the right direction but now this has come along. In the last nine months, unemployment has doubled - a number we have not seen for perhaps a good couple of decades.”
The Kickstart Scheme aims to get young adults on benefits into work, and boost apprenticeships.
Despite rising unemployment, council leaders said there is much development to look forward to in 2021.
