Jonathan Walker, head of policy and campaigns, North East England Chamber of Commerce said: “Today’s figures are great news for our region. Both the employment and unemployment indicators continue to move in the right direction, while our region has seen the biggest fall in the unemployment rate of anywhere in the UK. The North East accounted for 17% of the national fall in unemployment over the past year.
“These numbers also show that we no longer have the highest unemployment rate in the country. Credit for this should go to our businesses, who continue to build a working North East by investing in recruitment and training on the back of continued growth and success.
“However, we know there is still so much untapped potential in our current and future labour market and there are many great reasons to build a career in the North East. This is why the Chamber is backing the excellent Building My Skills programme, founded by our Partner member Esh Group, to help create even more opportunities for young people and keep our labour market on the right track”.
Charles Penn, Head of Marketing at Sintons, said: “It’s vitally important that we open up the world of work to young people through initiatives like Building My Skills.
“There are so many good opportunities in the North East and Building My Skills is a fantastic way to communicate those opportunities to young people while developing their employability skills.
“Retaining our home grown talent is a key challenge for the North East.”