Wolverhampton has the second largest proportion of workless households in the country, which represent 28% of all the households.
This means that over a quarter of households did not have any adult aged between 16 and 64 working during 2014.
27.6% of Wolverhampton’s children are living in these workless households.
Across the West Midlands the top 3 reasons for not working are sickness/disability, difficulty to find work, looking after family and home.
The statistics taken from the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics show that the average figure for workless households across the UK is 16%.
Councillor Martin Waite of Wolverhampton City Council said:
“The figures given in the report are slightly misleading as the data includes everyone in the WV post code, which goes beyond the political boundaries of the Wolverhampton area.
“I am not saying unemployment is not an issue in Wolverhampton.”
One of the reasons for high unemployment in Wolverhampton comes from its industrial history and the later deindustrialisation of the UK as a whole, which made it cheaper for businesses to move production abroad. Waite added:
” Wolverhampton is in the process of moving away from being a city thats dependent on heavy industry. That is not an overnight process.”
One of the main challenges is helping people who have left industry jobs to adapt their skills to work in the 21st century knowledge economy. For example those set to leave the Goodyear Tyre company in the upcoming months, will be faced with a job market were 81% of jobs are in the service sector.
In order to address the problem Wolverhampton Council have worked with an independent skills commission to look at the skills gaps in the local economy. The council also works closely with social enterprise initiatives across the Black Country.
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