With the release of the UK’s latest employment statistics today, I know that news of the town’s continued fall in unemployment rate to one of the lowest in the country – now at 2.9 per cent – will be welcome across Crawley. The latest figures come as Crawley has been recognised as having one of the highest rates of private sector job creation in the country.
Over the past three years our town has seen thousands of new private sector jobs created, large multi-national companies re-locating to Crawley, a new university presence, apprenticeship numbers up by 89 percent and higher education enrolments up from the disgracefully low 17 per cent rate that we saw under the previous Government. Indeed, for every one job lost in the public sector last year, six new jobs were created across the private sector.
Despite Labour’s fictitious claims that Crawley’s youth unemployment rates has increased, the Office for National Statistics’s own independent data shows that towards the end of the last Labour administration Crawley youth joblessness was at an unacceptable high of 8.6 percent; whilst today that figure stands at less than half - 4.2 percent.
The halving of youth unemployment and fall in the rate across all age groups to below 3 per cent in Crawley since Labour was in power shows both that this Government’s policy of job creation is working but also that there is still yet further to go towards tackling unemployment.
Half of newly created jobs under Labour went to foreign nationals and so now the Government’s welfare reforms, together with tough new border policies which has seen immigration cut by a third, have helped enable people to come off benefits and to be better off in work.
The town’s continued move from strength to strength is highlighted by a recent Santander UK Town & City Business Index report which ranks Crawley as fourth best placed nationally for enterprise, talent, connectivity, wellbeing and cost. Indeed, I’m especially delighted that our town is ranked as having the fourth highest economic wellbeing in the UK.
For my part, I have been working to establish a Crawley Jobs Fair which will take place at the Civic Hall from 10am on Friday, 27th September 2013, free of charge. I have been liaising closely with local businesses to facilitate an event which will showcase Crawley’s most successful businesses and match prospective employers with potential employees.
This is a fantastic opportunity for local businesses and residents alike and so I very much hope that this event will continue to build on the continuing downward trend in unemployment. You can find out more by visiting: www.crawleyjobsfair.com
Henry Smith MP