Chichester and Bognor Regis unemployment falls

As the Office of National Statistics reported the first rise in national unemployment in two years, the south-east region bucked the trend and reported a further decrease in unemployment.

Karen Brooks, from the Department of Work and Pensions said unemployment in June, 2015, was down 24.2 per cent compared with June, 2014, while Bognor Regis was down 23.1 per cent in the same time period.

She said a lot of businesses were hoping to get into Chichester and Bognor’s labour market, making it ‘very very buoyant’, providing ever more opportunities.

“It’s all looking very rosy down here in the south,” said Ms Brooks.

“Certainly, in this area – the south east – we’re right down from where we were a year ago.”

With the levels of unemployment falling in the Chichester and Bognor areas as more employment becomes available, Ms Brooks said the tend was likely to continue.

“Jobseekers allowance will continue to fall because we’ve got so many vacancies at the moment,” she said.

There is plenty of seasonal work in the Bognor and Chichester areas with many jobs coming and going rapidly, especially in the summer.

“I think the focus for the DWP is very much moving people closer to the labour market,” added Ms Brooks. “I would say that yes, probably the jobseeker register will continue to decrease and hopefully the on and off flow on the register will slow down as well.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get people into employment for longer.”

She said there was lots of recruitment taking place at the moment in the hospitality industry around the area.

Recently, Chichester District Council highlighted the importance of boosting tourism in the area and the good this could do to the local economy, saying it could help potential employees around the Chicheter area.

“I do tend to agree with that, and Bognor,” said Ms Brooks.

“They’re sister towns, there’s development going on in both the towns. It just goes to show, when you’ve got big employers coming in like Next, Marks and Spencer and Rolls-Royce that’s really going to boost the local economy as well.

“For us, it’s great to get the recruitment of these big companies.”

She said it was providing lots of employment chances across Bognor and Chichester and refreshing the job market, which was ‘excellent’ for the area.

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