MAJOR construction projects like the Westgate Centre have brought the unemployment rate in Oxfordshire to its lowest in the last decade.

Just 3.3 per cent , or 11,700 people of the county’s working age population – 352,400 – were out of a job in 2014, the lowest level since 2006 when it was at the same level.

And the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) plummeted by more than 70 per cent from 9,633 in April 2009 to just 2,762 last month.

It is a dramatic decline from 2008 when the number of JSA claimants rocketed from 3,820 to nearly 10,000 after the global financial crash. Now Oxfordshire’s job centres say they are flooded with employers, from construction firms to restaurants, looking for workers.

The Job Centre’s employer engagement manager Diane Mckenna-Rhead said, ironically it was Oxfordshire’s affluence – which makes it one of the most expensive places to live in the UK – that had created so many jobs

She said they were getting to the point where they had more jobs than people to give them to and that it was all types of work.

She said: “The labour market is really buoyant in Oxfordshire, much more than Gloucestershire, for example.

“We have a lot more happening with new builds going on like the new Westgate Centre or the new Waitrose on Botley Road.

“The Science Vale area is going to start to bring in a lot more work for us as well .”

In the last year alone, the number of people claiming JSA dropped 32 per cent from 4,073 to 2,762.

And Mrs Mckenna-Rhead said while zero-hour contracts had been a concern five years ago, these days she had so many employers looking for workers that the Job Centre was never forced to offer them.

Managing director Carolyn DellaRagione, of hairdresser apprentice academy Introtrain, based in Osney Mead, Oxford, said: “We have more jobs available than ever. Smaller hairdressers are looking to find apprentices of the right calibre.”

Kellyann Luckett, an apprentice at Introtrain, said: “With full-time college you don’t get the salon experience but with the apprenticeships I get more experience and it builds my confidence.”

Nick Pearce, of Cropredy-based Pearce Builders said: “With the industry picking up considerably, it was clear I needed to think about growing my workforce.”

He found 17-year-old Jack Barnard who trained at Kidlington apprentice academy ACE. Jack, now an apprentice bricklayer, said: “When I left school I was sure I wanted to become a bricklayer but it wasn’t easy finding an opportunity.

“So I started a pre-apprenticeship course at ACE, three days a week. After three months I was put forward for an apprenticeship with Nick and, after a trial, was lucky enough to be taken on and now work four days a week onsite.”

Oxford Mail:

Shane Touhey

However former employment coach Shane Touhey, who now helps young people get into education and training, said he was not convinced by the figures.

He used to work in the Job Centre in Oxford once a week and said he had not seen an obvious drop in the number of people looking for work.

But he said the last Government had made it harder for people to successfully claim JSA by introducing new rules.

He also said zero-hours contracts were on the rise. He said: “Most people I was working with were getting zero-hour contracts, factory work and cleaning.”

Oxfordshire County Council leader Ian Hudspeth said he did not know how many people were employed on zero-hours contracts in the county, but said he had no problem with them in principle. He said: “If it gives a company the ability to employ someone, it’s all part of the mix of the long-term recovery.”

He said the latest unemployment figures were “fantastic”, adding: “It is evidence that Oxfordshire is a great place to work.”

The Oxford Mail reported last week that Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust needs to find 452 nurses and has been running recruitment drives in Spain and Portugal. 

JSA CHANGES

  • Over recent years the Government has tightened the rules on claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance.
  • In October 2012 new sanction rules were introduced meaning claimants could have their benefits cut if they failed to obey the rules of claiming JSA.
  • For the most serious failures, sanctions up to 156 weeks could be imposed under the new rules.
  • It also meant that sanctions could be introduced quicker than before – within the same week the offence was “committed”.
  • Previously JSA claimants could have a 26-week sanction lifted after four weeks if they re-complied with the rules, but as of 2012 claimants have to “serve” the full time.
  • With effect from April 1, 2014, a claimant cannot be treated as resident in the UK unless they have been living here for three months.