Chamber calls on political leaders to act following slight increase in East Midlands unemployment

With unemployment in the region among over 16’s having risen from 4.4% to 4.6%, East Midlands Chamber is urging political leaders to mitigate higher employment costs faced by businesses following the Autumn Budget.

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics covers July to September and is compared to figures from the previous three months.  East Midlands unemployment is at its second lowest level in the last 12 months and is 0.2% lower than this time in 2023.

East Midlands Chamber Director of Policy and Insight Richard Blackmore said: “While unemployment among over 16’s in the East Midlands has generally gone in the right direction and has reduced over the last year, it could be much better.  East Midlands businesses are struggling to get the right people, so seeing even a small increase in unemployment in recent months is worthy of concern.

"Nearly seven out of ten businesses in the region have found recruiting difficult in the last three months, according to our Quarterly Economic Survey  - when you combine the difficulty getting staff that have the required skills with the hurdle of higher staffing costs, you get a perfect storm.

“It’s one thing for firms to have been facing the high cost of doing business, but this dark cloud of higher employer National Insurance contributions and higher National Living Wage looms on the horizon and will make funding staff a significant challenge.  With that in mind, and a 0.2% increase in unemployment from the June to August period, it’s essential political leaders step up to help."

“We’ve surveyed a wide cross section of our members in the East Midlands with their reactions to the measures that were announced in the recent Budget, and we’ll shortly present the findings to regional and national political leaders.”