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Labour Market InformationThe RegionThe Yorkshire and the Humber Region covers 15,411 sq. km, and has a population of just over 5 million. It includes the counties of South and West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the former county of Humberside. It covers 6% of the UK's total landmass, and one fifth of the land area is designated as National Park, including the North Yorkshire Moors and the Yorkshire Dales. The region also includes many large urban areas, such as York, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bradford. North Yorkshire and the former county of Humberside are primarily rural and are dependent on agriculture and small manufacturing business and service industries. South and West Yorkshire are primarily urban and have traditional industries although these industries are rapidly undergoing transformations. Industry and EmploymentThe declining sectors continue to be coal, steel and traditional engineering industries. Food production has also seen a large decline during the past 18 months with the closure of several long-established business, particularly in confectionary and frozen food. The fastest growing sectors in the region are construction and services industries. There are several new development projects - the region such as the development of the new airport at Finningly, which it is hoped will create over 7000 jobs. Our CustomersIn Yorkshire & Humber, Jobcentre Plus serves 429,300 customers claiming key benefits (from a total population of around 5 million). This figure includes 72,800 unemployed people, 291,100 who are sick and disabled, and 66,800 lone parents. We currently receive, on average, 7,600 new claims for benefit, 4,400 of which are for Jobseekers Allowance, 1,700 for Income Support and 1,500 for Incapacity Benefit. UnemploymentThroughout the year, unemployment has gradually fallen in line with the national trend. The unemployment rate in Yorkshire & the Humber is currently 4.5%. The % of people unemployed and claiming JSA in December 04 was 2.2% for Yorkshire and the Humber and 2.2% for the U.K. as a whole compared with December 03 when the rate stood at 2.5% in Y&H and 2.4% in the UK. EmploymentEmployment in the Region currently stands at 74.5%. According to the Labour Force Survey, people are employed in the Region as follows:
Job and Vacancies Notified6401 Vacancies were notified in the period Apr – Dec 04. In the same period last year 5995 vacancies were notified an increase of 6.8%. 13303 Jobs were notified in the period Apr – Dec 04. In the same period last year 13114 jobs were notified, an increase of just 1.4%.
Skills Shortages and Hard to Fill VacanciesJobs remaining unfilled on our records in the Region are for skilled construction workers skilled electricians, plumbers, HGV drivers with experience and lower paid vacancies in the care sector and hospitality industry, especially hotels and catering. Both the Care & Hospitality sector suffer with retention of staff in a very tight labour market where competition between employers is fierce. The Contact Centre industry is perhaps the largest sector advertising vacancies and suffering a skill shortage. There is an ongoing need to recruit, with many of the Call Centres having a large proportion of unfilled vacancies. Working patterns in the Region have remained fairly static over the past 5 years as illustrated by the following table:
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