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Big drop in Black Country jobless figures

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More than 2,000 people have come off the jobless queues across the Black Country as stores and delivery companies geared up for the Christmas rush.

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A major recruitment drive among firms such as Amazon in Rugeley, delivery firms such as Cannock's APC Overnight and at stores and supermarkets across the area is thought to be behind the steep drop in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.

At the same time the Black Country has also been a pilot area for intensive programmes aimed at getting the jobless into work, often linked to skills and training.

The combination of Jobcentre schemes and seasonal recruitment saw the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in the Black Country fall by 2,053 to 26,384 in November, new figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal.

In Wolverhampton it was down by 632 on the previous month to 7,461, or 4.7 per cent of the city's working population.

That is still one of the highest claimant rates in the country, however – the national average is 2.1 per cent.

In Dudley the claimant count was down by 389 to 5,880 or three per cent, while in Sandwell it was down by 496 to 7,802 or four per cent. In Walsall it was down 536 to 5,241 or 3.1 per cent.

The claimant count was also down in Kidderminster and Wyre Forest, across the Staffordshire districts of Cannock Chase, Lichfield, South Staffs and Stafford.

Cathy Taylor, an employment engagement manager with the Jobcentres in Wolverhampton, said around 450 people from Wolverhampton had been recruited to work at Amazon's huge sorting depot at Rugeley: "You can see their buses picking up and dropping off morning and night. And we have also seen people taken on at the Royal Mail.

"But it is not just seasonal. Over the last year we have supported 3,000 people from the Wolverhampton area into work, both part time and full time. And a third of those have been young people, aged 18 to 24.

"And we are seeing this across the whole area. The private sector has created around 115,000 jobs in the West Midlands since 2010.

"We are now looking ahead to the start of the new year and we have literally hundreds of jobs that we know will need filling, particularly in warehousing and stock picking.

"Synchreon, the company that handles components and parts for Jaguar Land Rover, has been recruiting for its work with the company's engine factory on the i54 site, and we know JLR will be looking to take on another 200 there early in the new year.

"At the same time Poundland is taking on more people at its distribution depot in Bilston.

"Many of these jobs need people with fork lift truck operators' licences, and that is something we are helping people gain.

"There are other jobs in the hospitality industry, manufacturing, logistics as well as in customer service for a utility company's telesales operation in Wolverhampton.

"Certainly right at the moment anyone with forklift qualifications or who has been in chef is in high demand."

Across the West Midlands as a whole unemployment fell by 14,000 to 187,000 between August and October, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Nationwide a cut of 63,000 in the jobless total to 1.96 million between August and October was the smallest quarterly fall for a year but the ONS reported that 30.8 million people were in work, the highest since records began in 1971, and 588,000 up on a year ago.

The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance across the UK was down by 26,900 in November to 900,100 – the 25th consecutive monthly fall.

Pay, including bonuses, increased by 1.4 per cent in the year to October, up by 0.4 per cent on the previous month, and higher than the current rate of CPI inflation, which has fallen to one per cent largely due to lower fuel costs.