It’s surprising and disappointing see that the GMB union has discovered that over a quarter of Isle of Wight households of working age are without work.
The figures come from the Annual Population Survey data on households by combined economic activity status January-December 2010 from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published just before Christmas 2011.
Highest in the South East
The Isle of Wight is ranked 20th highest in the whole of the UK but the highest in the South East – by a large degree, over 30% higher than Southampton at number two.
In an unsurprisingly political message, Richard Ascough, GMB regional secretary for the South East said, “The Tory Party famously claimed that ‘If it’s not hurting then it’s not working’. It is high time that the Tories learned that if someone does not have work it hurts. It hurts the person, it hurts their families, it hurts their communities and it hurts our economy.
“I doubt if the electorate had any notion that a change of government would lead to a loss of 376,000 jobs across the UK and 41,000 in the South East, in the public sector, in the short time since the general election.
It is high time that the region’s politicians at local, national and EU level started standing up for the people who elected them and demanded a change of approach. There is a massive shortage of jobs as these figures show. A first step is to stop the public sector job cuts in the pipeline. Policies that increase employment are the only sure fire route to recovery. The sooner we start on a new course the better.”
Details of the South East
| Rank | Area | Total Nº of households | Households without work | %age |
| 1 | Isle of Wight | 42,900 | 11,400 | 26.57% |
| 2 | Southampton | 83,600 | 16,600 | 19.86% |
| 3 | Medway | 78,400 | 15,100 | 19.26% |
| 4 | East Sussex | 160,700 | 28,900 | 17.98% |
| 5 | Kent | 441,700 | 78,900 | 17.86% |
| 6 | Brighton and Hove | 93,200 | 16,400 | 17.60% |
| 7 | Milton Keynes | 82,000 | 14,400 | 17.56% |
| 8 | Portsmouth | 68,400 | 11,700 | 17.11% |
| 9 | Reading | 54,400 | 8,400 | 15.44% |
| 10 | Slough | 42,400 | 6,500 | 15.33% |
| 11 | West Sussex | 256,800 | 35,100 | 13.67% |
| 12 | Hampshire | 415,700 | 52,100 | 12.53% |
| 13 | Buckinghamshire | 157,800 | 18,700 | 11.85% |
| 14 | Bracknell Forest | 38,000 | 4,300 | 11.32% |
| 15 | Windsor & Maidenhead | 47,900 | 5,400 | 11.27% |
| 16 | Oxfordshire | 203,600 | 22,800 | 11.20% |
| 17 | Surrey | 362,800 | 40,700 | 11.22% |
| 18 | Wokingham | 49,800 | 4,800 | 9.64% |
| 19 | West Berkshire | 50,500 | 4,800 | 9.50% |
Definitions
If you’re wondering how the defined these households as without work, here’s the background they provided
- Households without work are those households that include at least one person aged 16 to 64 and have no individuals aged 16 and over that are in employment.
- A household is defined as a single person or a group of people living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share living accommodation (or both).
- Reasons for not having work include unemployed, retired, sick or disabled, looking after family, student or other inactive. Other inactive includes waiting for the outcome of a job application, believe there are no jobs available, do not need a job or not started looking for a job.
