Employment and Skills Issues

This report has been prepared by TWRI for Skills North East Partners. It collates and reviews Employment and Skills issues in the North East in 2006, normally with five-year comparisons. 

The report shows that the NE region:

1. Has had very good economic growth since 2000 (GVA growth faster than the UK average)
2. Employment has grown by over 35,000 (3.5%) in this period although overall employment growth has been accounted for by growth of public service employment (up 47,000)
3. In the private sector, the biggest employment growth has been in the construction industry (up about 23,000)      
4. As a rule of thumb, the NE scores one fifth lower than national averages on a number of skills indicators. Ultimately, this culminates in the proportion of jobs held by people with NVQ4 qualifications being about a fifth lower than nationally (about 21% against 26% nationally)
5. One ‘warning sign’ in the labour market is evidence that the youth unemployment rate has risen, from an already high base  
6. The RES target of 77,000 more jobs for the region means that people need to be brought out of economic inactivity. Permanent sickness is 1½ times as high in the NE as nationally  
7. The proportion of young people entering Higher Education (36%) is one-fifth lower than in England (45%). This relatively low inflow constrains the NE’s capacity to expand the supply of high level skills

Click on the maps below for larger versions:

Supporting Documents and Downloads

Employment & Skills Issues Executive Summary [pdf] (82 KB)

Employment & Skills Report 2007 - Final [pdf] (408 KB)