Issue - meetings

To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.

A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions.  This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.

The Chairman explained that one Question on Notice had been received for the meeting.

Question submitted by Councillor S. Douglas

"My question concerns Bromsgrove’s unemployment. I am asking because the statistics tell a different story from the apparently amazing current rate that is frequently trumpeted at PMQs. Recent reports say that there is an additional 300.800 unemployed in our region. These people are involuntarily out of work but are now classed as economically inactive, thus ‘hidden’. Jobseeker’s rate stands at 5.1% not the 3% quoted in Parliament, with the ‘hidden’ unemployed the figure for the region actually is 14.3%.

What is Bromsgrove’s unemployment rate including those ‘hidden’? How does this breakdown across age groups?”

The Leader provided the response to the question and in doing so reported that Bromsgrove’s unemployment rate was 3.9% as reported by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) from October 2021 - September 2022. It was highlighted that the unemployment figures were model based, and that the unemployment rate was for the ‘unemployed as a percentage of the economically active population’ as defined by the ONS in 2023. The economically active population included ‘people who were either in employment or unemployed’ as defined by the ONS in 2023.

The unemployed population ‘referred to people without a job who were available to start work in the two weeks following their interview and who had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.’ as defined by the ONS in 2023.

The ONS classification of the ‘economically inactive population’ was defined as ‘people who were neither in employment nor unemployed including students, people looking after family/home, temporary sick, long term-sick, discouraged, retired and other’ There was no breakdown across age groups available.

The percentage of economically inactive population in Bromsgrove was reported by the ONS in October 2021 – September 2022 as 22.4%. The percentage represented a proportion of those aged 16-64. The estimated number of economically inactive people was 12,700 (the number was for those aged 16-64). This included 4,500 students and 2,900 retired people. The number of economically inactive people for the remaining categories could not be estimated, as sample sizes were too small to produce reliable estimates or were disclosive. Of the estimated 12,700 economically inactive people (aged 16-64), 12,300 or 97% did not want a job. People not wanting a job were ‘people who were neither in employment nor unemployed and who did not want a job.’