People
in Coventry and Warwickshire finding jobs accounted for 10 per cent of the 6,500 reduction
in unemployment across the UK last month.
And the jobless gap compared with the rest of the West Midlands widened even further.
The regional figure stayed static at 4.8 per cent but Coventry and Warwickshire fell to a
20-year historic low of only 3.4 per cent.
"Equally important, the number of new vacancies leapt up by 42 per cent,"
said a spokesman for The Chamber.
"This augurs well for a continuing downward trend next month.
"Service sector growth is more than compensating for the reduction in
manufacturing jobs-often driven as much by the need to raise productivity and control
prices through new methods and equipment as by the slowdown in the manufacturing
sector."
Both Coventry and Warwickshire contributed to the improving unemployment with falls of
two percentage points, down from 5.1 to 4.9 per cent in the city and from 2.8 to 2.6 per
cent in the county. Three years ago the Coventry figure hovered around nine per cent.
Analysts at the Chamber of Commerce, Training and Enterprise found that 7 5 per cent of
the new vacancies fell into four job sectors. These are distribution, hotels and
restaurants (22 per cent) manufacturing, banking and finance (both at 18 per cent), and
public administration, education and health (at 17 per cent).
Amongst the hardest to fill vacancies were those in the personal and protective
services, such as healthcare. Of 2,334 jobs, 1,612 remained unfilled.
In sales 800 jobs out of 1,153 are still open. Even in manufacturing around a third of
the 1,838 jobs offered were not snapped up. Of 429 construction jobs, only 121 were
filled.
Two thirds of 1,813 banking and finance jobs went begging
Stratford and Warwick saw the largest reductions in unemployment, down by 7.2 and 5.2
per cent respectively. Coventry's total fell by 4.6 per cent.
Only Rugby showed an increase, up by 23, and the town also reported the smallest
increase in new vacancies.
"One month's figures are not worrying," said The Chamber spokesman.
Total new vacancies leapt from 2,766 to almost 4,000.
