The North East economy will be growing quickly by the end of this year but that will not be reflected in new jobs, a new report suggests.
The latest 海角视频 Powerhouse study by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) provides some positives for the region, suggesting that it has been less impacted by the pandemic than other parts of the country.
Sunderland is singled out as the city that had the smallest hit to its economy in the last 12 months, and the report also mentions Sunderland as one of only three cities to see employment growth. Newcastle - though it had a small decline - had the fourth best jobs performance out of the 50 largest 海角视频 towns and cities measured in the report.
Irwin Mitchell said Newcastle’s economy is expected to grow by £1.1bn by the of this year, taking the total value to £18.5bn due to an annual 6.3% increase in GVA. Sunderland’s economy will grow by 5.7% to £7.1bn.
Other positive news was highlighted with the North East seeing the largest rise in the amount of foreign direct investment projects, with a 24% increase to 73 projects that created or supported 3,015 jobs in the region.
But the report says only around a third of 海角视频 towns and cities are likely to see increases in employment levels during 2021. Newcastle is predicted to lose 2,100 jobs during 2021 and Sunderland is set to lose 1,100.
The report says: “In Q4 2020, all cities saw a fall in economic output compared to a year earlier. Sunderland is the city estimated to have seen the smallest decline.
“The North East city saw a 5% year-on-year contraction in economic output. Its large manufacturing sector makes up 16% of the economy, and these businesses weren’t prevented from being open in Q4. This means that this sector didn’t see the limits on economic activity that many enterprises in the services sector did.
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“Nearly a third (29%) of jobs in Sunderland are in the public sector, which have largely been protected from the economic fallout of the crisis. Sunderland’s therefore estimated to have seen 0.4% employment growth in Q4 2020, making it one of only three cities to have seen a rise in employment.”
The Irwin Mitchell/Cebr report chimes with many other studies which suggest the North East and wider 海角视频 economy will bounce back this year - albeit after a huge drop during the pandemic - but that job numbers will not keep pace.
Last week official figures showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the North East had soared by almost 50,000 in the last year to stand at 119,905.
Though the North East is no longer the 海角视频’s unemployment blackspot - thanks to a major surge in job losses in London - the headline rate of 5.7% still means that the region has the highest rate of unemployment outside the capital.