North West Region

About the Region

The North West region is comprised of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. It is the only Government region with two major conurbations in close proximity. The population density ranges from less than a third of the UK average in Cumbria to more than 8 times the UK average in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. There is a wide and diverse range of ethnic groups represented throughout the region, which has a population of approximately 7 million people.

North West Economy

The region is home to more than 350,000 companies of which 1,700 are overseas owned and three quarters of the Top 100 companies have bases here. The region is the chosen location for major IT companies including Brother, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Siemans, ICL/Fijitsu and Sun Micro Systems. These companies enjoy excellent communications, research and development facilities and culture. The gross Domestic product (GDP) of the North West is £75.8 billion, which is larger than some of several European countries. Twenty five percent of the GDP is derived from the manufacturing sector, which employs over half a million people.

Health

The North West has around 13% of the England and Wales population with both men and women having a life expectancy of more than one year less than the England and Wales average.

Some of the lower income areas have more than double the chance of long-term illness.

Employment

Employment within the North West is steadily increasing with approx. 3.1 million people working as at June 2004. Jobcentre Plus placed approximately 167,500 people have been placed into jobs in 2003/04. Long-term employment has fallen by 4,080 over the 12 months to March 2004 and by 67,800 since May 1997. Data from the Labour Force Survey in November 2003 shows 74.9% of people are employed in the service sector, an increase of 5.6% since May 1997. Employment in manufacturing meanwhile has declined from 21.1% in May 1997 to 15.7% in November 2003.

Benefits

In the North West there are approximately:

• 97,789 people receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance
• 322,222 people receiving Income Support
• 440,286 people receiving Incapacity Benefit

Jobcentre Plus Structure

As at September 2005 Jobcentre Plus services are currently delivered through 7 Districts and nearly 150 locations. There is a Business Development Team in Regional Office and in each of the District Offices. Business Development covers a range of tasks including managing relations with external stakeholders, marketing Jobcentre Plus services and the co-ordination of business planning and internal communications.

For more information about Jobcentre Plus in the North West look at the 2005-06 Business Plan on this website.