Increasing employment in Yorkshire & Humber

Unemployment in our region is at a 30-year low, and together we’ve improved levels of educational attainment, competitiveness and social performance. We are a region of economic opportunity, not decline.

The unemployment challenge

Despite the positive economic conditions, a significant number of people remain unable to benefit because they aren’t in work and don’t have the skills to become meaningful members of the labour market. The economic exclusion of our deprived communities is an opportunity cost (in terms of the loss of potential talent to the economy) and also a very real financial cost: an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 unemployed people could cost the region’s economy £1.6bn per annum.

Working towards full social inclusion

Yorkshire Forward is working to unpick the ‘two-speed economy’, where affluent areas with full employment still sit side-by-side with areas which are run down and which face a range of related challenges (such as poor housing and health, crime, unattractive surroundings, low aspirations, and reliance on public-sector spending). Read about our policy on economic inclusion.

Encouraging enterprise

We need more people setting up successful businesses, so that they can become self-reliant and can contribute to their immediate, as well as the wider regional, economy. We’re encouraging enterprise, providing access to funding for business start-up and growth, and running Enterprise Shows across the region. We’re particularly encouraging enterprise for young people,  starting as early as in schools.

Building ‘enabling routes’ to jobs

Skills, transport and economic inclusion are key drivers for ensuring that everyone in Yorkshire & Humber is able to get the most benefit from (and make the most contribution to) economic growth and competitiveness.

Our approach to skills focuses on raising the aspirations of individuals, stimulating business demand for new skills, and developing higher-level skills in leadership and management. Read about our policy on skills.

On transport, we’re developing independent advice and evidence, achieving regional consensus on transport priorities, influencing transport operators, and working with partners to invest in practical transport improvements.

On economic inclusion, we’re working with our partners to increase the numbers of people in jobs, promoting economic development in the region’s deprived communities, and responding to the changing labour market by promoting diversity and equality for all.

Retaining and attracting graduates

With our universities producing 10% of the UK’s graduates, that’s a lot of talent in the region. Through initiatives such as Graduates Yorkshire, we’re helping to retain our graduates in order to benefit the economy and generate more jobs. We’re also helping to increase levels of graduate enterprise, particularly through university spin-outs.

Liaising between people and employers

We’re helping to influence and broker training and education so that they are linked to employer demand. We’re investing in the capacity of agencies which help people into employment, specifically with mentoring and jobs brokering. We will act as the co-ordinator in response to large-scale redundancies, and we work with the health sector to address long-term dependency on public sector support in our most deprived areas.