Employment in Yorkshire and Humber - the future

Businesses in Yorkshire and Humber are confused about the differing role of agencies involved in helping create thousands of jobs in the region, a key new report has revealed.

And while more needs to be done to protect smaller, supply chain companies from the impact of large-scale regional redundancies such as at Terrys and Nestle in York, Birds Eye in Hull and steel giant Outokumpu and tractor manufacturer McCormick in South Yorkshire, there is also a pressing need to better utilise the region’s growing ageing workforce.

The Yorkshire and Humber Assembly’s Scrutiny Board review of Employment issues looked at ways of how the right mix of employers and employees in the future will enable the region to compete successfully in a global economy.

More than 50 local and regional public and private sector organisations contributed to the review, the eleventh carried out by the Assembly into how Yorkshire Forward is working with partners to deliver the Regional Economic Strategy.

Key recommendations from the review report include:

• A need for Yorkshire Forward, Jobcentre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council to clarify their individual roles and responsibilities in relation to employment to reduce confusion amongst the business community;
• A need for Yorkshire Forward to work with other Regional Development Agencies to consider how supply chain firms providing goods and services to companies facing closure can be better supported;
• More consideration to be given to find ways of using older workers to train and mentor new recruits, along with being trained and employed as on-site assessors for work-based learning;
• A review of the current model being used to predict where new jobs and job losses will take place.

Scrutiny Board Chair Paul Jagger said employment was one of the most important issues facing the region.

“There’s a lot of good work already going on, but I believe the review has highlighted key areas where changes need to be considered by those organisations delivering employment programmes and initiatives,’’ he added.

“The response from the business community to the review has been excellent and we now look forward to seeing its work support activity on the ground.’’

Don Stewart, Director of Strategy at Yorkshire Forward adds;

“This latest scrutiny was useful in highlighting the need for partners to work together to support those affected by company closures. The Yorkshire Forward Board recently made a commitment to re-focus our own skills activities in those areas where we as an agency could have most impact.”

• Employment is the latest issue to come under the spotlight of the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly’s “scrutiny” role required by Government to ensure money spent on economic development is well targeted.
• The Assembly’s next review, into the region’s rural economy, has now been launched, with a public hearing planned at the Craiglands Hotel in Ilkley on October 11. . For more in-depth information on both reviews and a copy of the report log onto the Assembly’s website www.yhassembly.gov.uk or contact the Scrutiny team on 01924 331588.

Note to news editors

Recent figures included in the report show:

• Hull, York and Selby have seen the largest number of jobs lost to the region;
• There are particular issues around employment for Barnsley, Bradford, Doncaster and Hull;
• Just over a third of all jobs lost were from the manufacturing sector;
• Construction, financial and business services and public service sectors industries will see the highest predicted growth in employment;
• The new jobs will be a mix of professional jobs requiring a minimum of NVQ Level 4 and service related jobs which generally require a skill level of NVQ levels 2 and 3;
• Almost 50% of migrant workers from the eight Accession countries in the EU came to work in the administrative, business and managerial services.

The report and executive summary are available to download below.