New Research: Labour's Legacy - The North East Has The Highest Rate Of Unemployment In The Country

Look North has been running a series of reports this week about the health of the North Eastern economy after 13 years of Labour Government. The findings have been fascinating and more than a little worrying.

The report pointed out that we have the highest rate of unemployment in the country in the North East. According to the report:

Over the period May 1997 to December 2009 the North East has consistently been

one of the worst performing regions in terms of unemployment... unemployment has risen steadily in the North East to stand at 85,625 or 5.4% in December 2009 – the highest rate of all the regions of the UK and significantly higher than the UK average of 4.1%.

According to the report, the unemployment problem in County Durham is even worse than in the rest of the region:

County Durham experienced the most marked increase in claimant unemployment between May 2008 and the latest figures for December 2009 with a 105% increase in the number of people of working age claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) with the unemployment rate more than doubling to 4.5% from 2.2%.

I have spoken to so many people who have been suffering from the devastation of unemployment. And the Government hasn't been doing nearly enough to help create jobs in our area. We need to incentive business to create jobs; provide personalised careers advice to people looking for work; create 200,000 new apprenticeships over two years; and get credit flowing to business again.