Press Story

IPPR North argue that the pace of public sector job cuts is too fast for the economy and is hitting women hard as a result. The private sector is failing to fill the gaps left behind in some areas. This has caused the unemployment rate to reach 8.3 per cent - the highest since 1996 and the total number of unemployed people the highest since 1994.

Today's figures show that the number of women out of work increased by 43,000 to 1.09 million, the highest level since February 1988. The North East and Yorkshire have seen particularly large increases to the number of women out of work. Over the last year female unemployment has increased by 23 per cent in the North East and 19 per cent in Yorkshire.

IPPR North argues that to help bring unemployment down, the government should introduce a Jobs Guarantee for the long term unemployed which should first target areas worst affected such as the North East where the unemployment rate was highest at 11.6 per cent.

Katie Schmuecker, Senior Research Fellow at IPPR North said:

"Today's unemployment figures make for more grim reading, especially for women in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, where unemployment among women is rising quickly. The concern is that this will continue to get worse as public sector cuts continue to bite. This is because the public sector employs more women than men, and Northern regions have more public sector jobs as a proportion of total jobs."

Notes to Editors:

The latest unemployment figures can be found here http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_242614.pdf

IPPR North has set up the Northern Economic Futures Commission to develop a medium-long term strategy for jobs growth for the North. More details here http://www.ippr.org/research-projects/44/7405/northern-economic-futures-commission?siteid=ipprnorth

Contacts:

Tamsin Crimmens, IPPR North: t.crimmens@ippr.org / 0191 233 9051 / 07800 742 262