Regional jobless figures soar as firms fear bigger red tape burden, says Chamber

Pictured above: Christine Braddock

Jobless figures in the West Midlands are unlikely to reduce until the government acts to cut the regulatory burden faced by businesses.

Today's data issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that unemployment in the West Midlands rose by 28,000 to 261,000, the second worse performing region in the UK behind the North East.

Christine Braddock, president of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said: "Excessive regulation, particularly additional employment laws, makes businesses less profitable and therefore leads to a reluctance to take on new staff and pushes them towards looking at redundancies.

"Over the next four years new employment laws alone will cost West Midlands businesses £1.75 billion, which will obviously act as a disincentive to take on new staff."

Mike Ashton, spokesman for West Midlands Chambers of Commerce, said: "It's extremely disappointing that our region was second in the table for unemployment between October and December.

"Those businesses that are looking to take on new staff often experience difficulty in finding qualified people because a third of the population of the West Midlands have no formal qualifications. Fifty-three per cent are not qualified above GCSE level."

Article published by Midlands Business News on 16 February, 2011

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Articles submitted by Birmingham Chamber of Commerce:

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