Home / Updates / North East LEP ONS Labour Market Statistics reaction 12 July 2017

North East LEP ONS Labour Market Statistics reaction 12 July 2017

Victoria Sutherland, North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Senior Economist, today welcomed positive news in relation to the North East’s labour market.

Today’s data shows real improvement in the labour market with more people employed and economically active and fewer people unemployed and inactive.

The improvement in the North East’s employment rate for 16-64s is better over the past quarter than any of the other regions or nations in the UK.

We are especially pleased to see strong growth in the information and communication sector, which includes many digital activities. Over the past 12 months, employment in this sector has increased by 11,000 or 38%.

Our Strategic Economic Plan highlights digital as one of the key areas of opportunity for the North East, and this employment growth is just one of a number of recent signs that this sector is prospering.

When we look more deeply into the data, we see that it’s not just the growth in employment that is encouraging, but the growth in the number of people in full-time employment, with fewer people in part-time or temporary employment because they are unable to secure full-time or permanent employment.