Job seekers with 'wrong' skills blamed as jobless numbers rise in Peterborough

A lack of the right skills among job seekers has been blamed for a rise in the number of people out of work in Peterborough.

Business leaders say that although companies are struggling to fill a high numbers of vacancies, they are often finding that applicants do not have the necessary skills.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that last month in Peterborough there were 7,4105 people claiming unemployment related benefits.

It is an increase of 645 over the year and means 5.4 per cent of Peterborough’s working age population are unemployed.

The ONS ranks Peterborough as the 34th worst hit place for the proportion of people out of work.

It comes after the think tank Centre for Cities claimed Peterborough was 10th in the top 10 worst-hit cities for unemployment in the UK.

The ONS figures also show Cambridgeshire had 9,700 people claiming unemployment benefits last month – 2.2 per cent of the working age population - down 1,600 people on the year.

The East of England had 117,865 people claiming unemployment benefits last month - three per cent of the working age population, and down 3,985 over the year.

For the UK, 3.8 per cent of the working age population are unemployed, a total figure of 1,599,545, down 32,640 over the year.

Vic Annells, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “I’m told that companies have not been conscious of a rise in unemployment.

"A combination of the skills available not being properly aligned to the skills required plus a tightening of the economy could have been feeding through into the jobless numbers.”

One company boss, who did not wish to be named, said: "There are many businesses in and around Peterborough that are successfully managing their way through the various financial challenges including inflation, interest rates, energy prices and salary expectations.

"Over the last three years during continued growth, we have generally found it more difficult to match local candidate skills to our vacancies in a competitive jobs market.

"Higher unemployment plus increased challenges with filling vacancies points towards local skills gaps which is of concern and a potential key barrier to future growth."