Mayor Dave Writes: Dramatic Fall in Borough's Unemployment Figures

Mayor Dave Hodgson's latest monthly column for the Times and Citizen looked at the dramatic fall in unemployment revealed by the latest figures for Bedford Borough, including a 46% drop in jobseeker's allowance claimants since February last year. Here's the piece in full:

Latest figures show a dramatic fall in unemployment in Bedford Borough. Since February last year, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance has dropped by a staggering 46%. The age group with the highest proportion of claimants, 18 -24 year-olds, saw numbers drop by 16% between September and October alone, much faster than the regional reduction.

While these figures are to be welcomed, it is not time for celebration, but rather encouragement for all those who can help to maintain this trend to intensify their efforts. This applies to many more people and agencies than simply employer and employee. The local employment outlook is shaped in many ways by many bodies and individuals including local schools and further and higher education providers, local politicians, investors, banks, government and the Council.

For the Council's part, since becoming Mayor I have made job creation and economic growth a top priority, and have retained the Economic Development cabinet portfolio personally in order to ensure we are doing all we can in this vital task. If the Borough's economy is growing and new opportunities are being created, it helps establish a virtuous circle for our community where rising standards in education, high quality local facilities, jobs growth and more all support each other.

That's why we have taken such measures as establishing the groundbreaking Jobs Hub so that the right support is freely available for those who need it. We've also got the crucial bypass works underway, and continue to pursue further improvements such as our town centre decongestion project. Meanwhile, we are working to attract more investment such as the regeneration scheme bringing town centre cinema back and creating 200 jobs. It's an ongoing effort, in the permanent hope that the next month's figures will be even better, because of what that means for households across the borough and our community as a whole.