COVENTRY and Warwickshire business leaders say the rate of unemployment has ‘defied all the odds’ on the back of the latest official figures showing another fall.
The current figures from the Office for National Statistics show unemployment across the country dropped from 4.5 per cent to 4.1 between September and November, leaving it just 0.1 per cent higher than at the start of the pandemic.
Job vacancies also reached a new high in the final quarter of the year.
Sean Rose, head of policy at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said it was great news.
“One of the major concerns at the start of the first lockdown was that Covid-19 and the restrictions it was bringing with it was going to have a massive impact on unemployment and that we’d see massive job losses.
“Those same fears were there as schemes such as furlough started to come to an end but, again, the labour market has held up well.”
He added the more pressing issues for businesses the Chamber spoke to was being able to find the right people with the right skills to come in and help them grow as the economy continues to recover.
