Latest constituency level unemployment complaint count data shows - perhap surprisingly - that Hampstead & Kilburn unemployment at 3.5% is now higher than in Holborn and St Pancras at 3.4%. Unemployment rose 1.3% over the last 12 months in H&K compared with a 0.8% fall in Holborn and St Pancras.
The Council has done some detailed work on understanding these figures in the past. The figures certainly underline the scale of unemployment in the new H&K seat, with the two Kilburn wards no doubt making a considerable contribution. But there may also be a greater recession impact from white collar/private sector unemployment in H&K than in HSP. HSP on the other hand is almost certainly more dependent on public sector employment and may well sadly be harder hit over the next year and more.
The simple unemployment figures of course are only a small part of the overall level of worklessness, which includes incapacity benefit etc - and here I suspect (and recall previous figures showing this) that HSP has a higher level of challenge. In HSP something like one child in three is born in a home where no-one works, which is a very depressing statistic about inter-generational worklessness.
The problems of getting people into jobs in Camden is structural, not just linked to recession or government spending cuts - the work of making people more attractive in a vastly changed labour market will not cease any time soon. What is certain and needs to be more widely understood is that it's undoubtedly the private sector and the opportunities it offers that will account for most of new job growth over the coming few years. Meanwhile we should all keep an eye on local worklessness figures and of course the lives and difficulties behind the figures.
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