London success masks failure to supply jobs for unqualified
The ONS today issued a release looking into the relationship between qualifications and labour market participation, as shown in the 2011 Census. The most striking thing about this release is the number of London boroughs that rank bottom across the country for employment levels among those people with few or no qualifications. Looking at people with no qualifications, the lowest four local authorities are all in London, with Tower Hamlets registering only 30% employment among this group. This is even more striking when looking at people with a maximum of 1-4 GCSEs or equivalent. Among this group, the bottom ten local authorities are all in London.
This problem in London is typified by Tower Hamlets, where almost half of the population have a degree and the borough registers the 38th highest level of employment in the country for this group, at a rate of 87.5%. The less qualified half of the borough comparatively ranks relatively low in the employment rankings, especially for people with no qualifications (30% employed) and people with 1-4 GCSEs (55.4% employed), for both groups ranking 348th (AKA last place) in the country.
London boroughs do typically have more young people, a group which has a higher unemployment rate, however, with the success of London in employing graduates questions have to be raised as to why the less qualified can’t find work. With talk of London pulling away from the rest of the country it is easy to think everything is good within the capital, however this positivity is masking the failure to supply jobs across the full range of qualifications.
Oliver Hicks-Pattison, Researcher, Tooley Street Research
June 18th 2014