'Push' for green industry jobs among jobseekers, Minister says, as unemployment drops to low in Yorkshire

Mims Davies told The Yorkshire Post that a lot of people who have been “buffeted about” in their work, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, are increasingly turning to these new industries for inspiration, especially among younger workers.

She explained: “I would say that there has been a massive push particularly from young people for those green roles.”

Ms Davies went on: “Very often people who have been buffeted around in the pandemic have said ‘what I’d really like to do is go into the green sector or a green industry’.

“And that’s so varied in terms of smart metering, or whether it’s modern cars and mechanics.”

Ms Davies was speaking after the latest round of employment figures showed that unemployment in Yorkshire and the Humber had dropped to 3.8 per cent in the three months ending November 2021, a record low for the region.

“There are opportunities for you out there.

“And of course, Yorkshire and Humber is doing particularly well – 3.8 per cent which is lower than the national average in terms of unemployment, so positive news locally.”

Unemployment fell 128,000 to 1.38 million quarter-on-quarter in the three months to November, while employment lifted 60,000 to 32.5 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the figures were “proof that the jobs market is thriving”.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: “The number of employees on payrolls continued to grow strongly in December, with the total now well above pre-pandemic levels.

“New survey figures show that in the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell back almost to where it was before Covid-19 hit, and those reporting they’d recently been made redundant fell to their lowest since records began more than a quarter of a century ago.

“However, while job vacancies reached a new high in the last quarter of 2021, they are now growing more slowly than they were last summer.”