Helping local people into jobs
Helping local people into jobs
Through the CW Skills 4 Growth European Social Funded programme a total of 63 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises have been supported leading to accredited training and qualifications for 263 employees meeting their identified skills needs. In addition, our social value work has resulted in 258 local people employed on sites with Skills & Employment plans. Recent activity this year has involved liaison with businesses in relation to the transfer of Coventry City Council unspent Apprenticeship Levy funds. This new work which commenced in the latter part of 2019/2020 has so far led to engagement with 4 businesses who have been approved to receive CCC Apprenticeship levy transfers of £124,500 which will fund and support 29 new apprentices in Coventry.
Strong levels of employment
The number of Coventry residents in employment has been increasing strongly for the last few years and continued to increase in 2019. The employment rate is 73%, with 179,300 of 245,500 working age (16-64) residents in paid work. This rate is lower than the England average, but is in line with other similar areas with a high number of full-time students.
Coventry’s employment rate is lower than the national average at least partly because it is home to a relatively high number of fulltime students. While a few years ago the total number of residents in employment was increasing but the employment rate wasn’t increasing significantly because the total working-age population is growing very fast (amongst the fastest population growth in the UK), the overall employment rate has also been on an improving trend for a number of years now. It is significant that the number of residents in employment is growing faster than the total working-age population given that Coventry’s population is growing so fast. The increase in the employment rate in the last year of just over 1 percentage point is not statistically significant in itself, however, the data gives strong evidence that the trend of improvement continued in 2019, so the progress of this indicator is reported as positive.
The total number of residents in employment has been increasing because of increases in both full-time and part-time work. The increase in the number of residents in employment was slightly greater amongst those employed in ‘higher skilled’ better-paid occupations types in general. The growth in jobs in Coventry and the increase in the employment rate amongst Coventry residents in 2018 happened at a time when growth in overall GVA has been relatively slow. It may be that local jobs have been increasing in less productive sectors for GVA, analysis of changing GVA and jobs by industry gives some evidence to that - although growth in employment amongst residents has been in higher-paid occupation types on the whole. There are indications that the total number of jobs at workplaces in Coventry started to fall in 2019 following growth for a number of years. In this context, it is positive that the number of Coventry residents in work has continued to increase. Overall, trends of employment for Coventry residents appear a little more positive than the overall economy.
Unemployment higher than national averages
This gives a sign of unemployment amongst Coventry residents in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. There are already indications from the benefit claimant count (another measure) that unemployment in Coventry increased notably in April 2020 and unemployment will be notably higher as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. The extent of this and how long-lasting the negative impact will be as yet unclear. These 2019 data simply gives us a view of the baseline unemployment level before the pandemic, an indication of the health of the labour market for Coventry residents in 2019, which may help with the picture of how well-placed Coventry is to deal with the pandemic impact.
The 2019 unemployment rate stands at 5.3%, higher than the national average. As with national trends, unemployment in Coventry has been dropping over the medium term, but it increased a little in 2019 and it's now higher than the national average again after it had closed the gap in previous years. An estimated 10,300 Coventry working-age residents are unemployed, 5.3% of all economically active Coventry residents. Coventry’s unemployment rate is now a little higher than the average amongst a group of similar local authority areas because of the 2019 increase. Unemployment has gone up at the same time as employment increased as well. This is because the number of Coventry residents who are economically inactive has continued to fall, despite increases in the number of students in Coventry. So, some residents who were previously inactive are now in employment and a number of others are now seeking work but have not been able to secure employment. National welfare reform policies may have been a factor in these flows. In 2019 there were an estimated 56,000 residents economically inactive, 10,300 unemployed and 179,300 in paid employment.
The unemployment claimant count, which is a different measure that counts the number of residents who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or claiming the new benefit Universal Credit due to being unemployed, indicates that unemployment in Coventry is highest in Foleshill ward and lowest in Wainbody ward. As mentioned above, this is a timelier measure of changing unemployment and the data is suggesting unemployment went up sharply in April 2020.
Increasing qualification levels
Up until recently Coventry’s working-age population overall have been less qualified compared to other areas. However, there have been improvements in recent years and while overall the population still is less qualified than the national average, Coventry is now doing well compared to similar areas. A higher proportion of Coventry residents are qualified to higher education level than the regional average and the average amongst local authority areas that are like Coventry. 36% are qualified to higher education level (NVQ level 4+), 89,000 residents. The long term trend of increase appears to be continuing but the increase in the proportion of residents who are qualified to at least level 4 in 2019 was not significant, the trend of improvement has slowed a little for the last couple of years. The recent increase in the proportion of residents with higher-level qualifications will be linked to the growth of the local universities. Also, to the recent trend of growth in employment amongst residents and faster growth amongst occupations types that likely require higher qualifications. This data gives a tentative indication of success in the aim of attracting those in higher-paid occupations to live in Coventry where previously they commuted in from their homes outside of the city.
The considerable number of students moving to Coventry to study at the two local universities means that the city benefits from a graduate gain whereby annually the city enjoys a net gain of graduates in employment. However, only an estimated 15% of students moving to Coventry to study stay to work in the city, and so graduate retention is low compared to other cities. If Coventry were able to retain more of those graduating from Coventry University and the University of Warwick, the qualification profile of the city would improve; this requires improving job opportunities for graduates. At the other end of the spectrum, almost a tenth (9%) do not have qualifications, 22,200 residents; worse than across England overall (7.5%), similar to the West Midlands regional average (10%) and to the average amongst similar local authority areas. This may make it harder for these residents to get into employment, or at least sustain secure and reliable work. However, many of those with no official qualifications are aged 50 and over and many are in work.
These statistics that look at the proportion of residents who have certain qualifications gives some indication of how highly skilled the local population are, but we should note that qualifications is not the same thing as skills required at workplaces. There have been challenges with skills in Coventry whereby businesses have experienced shortages of the skills they need. 8% of Coventry firms who responded to the national Employer Skills Survey 2017 said they have at least one skills shortage vacancy, whereby they are finding it difficult to recruit to a job because the candidates do not have the required skills. Additionally, 12% of Coventry firms said they had skills gaps whereby at least one of their employees did not have all the skills required for the job.
Young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET)
Coventry’s performance has continued to improve over the last three years and the 2019 figure of 5.4% remains below (better than) both our statistical neighbours and national. Coventry is estimated to have 380 NEETs, 16-17 year olds not in education, employment, or training, or whose activity is not known.