Bristol jobless figures double in a year

The number of people out of work in Bristol has almost doubled in a year, figures reveal today.

The total claiming JobSeeker’s Allowance (JSA) in the city rose from 5,057 in February 2008 to 9,771 in February 2009.

This puts Bristol’s unemployment level at 3.5 per cent of the workforce.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures, which make Bristol the 10th worst affected city in England, Scotland and Wales, have led to calls for more from the Government to help urban areas drive the recovery from recession.

And Nigel Hutchings of Business West said the city’s unemployment was not likely to improve in the short term, but stressed that the out-of-work figures were still “relatively low” for a city of Bristol’s size.

He said: “Bristol used to be the highest provider of the GDP (gross domestic product) in England outside of London.

“I do not know what those figures look like now, but we certainly have the potential to grow back. We have got some very good businesses in Bristol, and a lot of those businesses – for example Airbus and Rolls Royce – rely very heavily on long-term contracts, with the potential to take employment there right through (the recession).

“I think that in the immediate future, however, things in Bristol are going to get worse before they even get slightly better, but at the moment this is nothing like the early Nineties recession.”

A study of the ONS figures by the independent research group The Work Foundation found that 45,657 people across the country were claiming the benefit in February – 12,383 more than a year earlier.

Birmingham was the worst hit area, followed by Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Hull, Manchester, Bradford, Kirklees, Liverpool and Bristol.

Naomi Clayton, senior researcher at The Work Foundation, said: “Places in the eye of the storm as job losses mount are the UK’s core cities and areas associated with traditional manufacturing – places which in many cases had yet to recover fully from previous recessions before this one set in.

“In terms of absolute numbers of new people signing on for JSA, it is the core cities of the North and Midlands that are worst hit.

“Perhaps more revealing, though, are the council areas that have seen the sharpest upward movements in unemployment rates.

“These tell a story of a more traditional UK recession: some areas which had yet to experience the economic prosperity enjoyed by others are once more showing how vulnerable they are to downturns, especially if dependent on single employers.

“Policy makers ignore how recessions play out locally at their peril. It is to be hoped that the forthcoming budget focuses much more attention on the large cities – Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham – that can drive the recovery, as well as recognising which areas need the most support to survive and prepare for better times.”