The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, by general consensus, were a huge success. They may not have provided the huge boost to retail commercial properties that was promised before the event itself, but the stunning stage show and the performances by athletes from Team GB have restored a feeling of optimism in a country that badly needed some good news.
What is more, they provided employment for thousands of people, as official figures released last week show. In fact, the impact upon employment was so great that the statistics regarding unemployment in a time of economic hardship now look better than they have in the four years of the double dip recession.
The number of people registered as unemployed fell by over 7,000 in the quarter up to the 31st July – altogether contributing to a dip in the unemployment rate of 0.1 per cent. This means that, in the most recent released figures, the unemployment rate stands at 8.1 per cent, which is approaching the lowest it has been in quite some time. Furthermore, the number of people in commercial property employment rose by 236,000 to 29.6 million, which is the largest quarterly increase in two years.
Obviously, this also had an effect upon the number of people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA). It seems that the Olympics were largely to thank for the largest recorded quarterly drop in claimants, with London claimants dropping by 5,500 – over a third of the nationwide 15,000 decrease.
Yet not all areas of the country performed as well as the capital city in terms of the falling unemployment rate, as Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, explains.
He says; “For families suffering the misery of unemployment, any decrease will be welcome news, but it is clear when you look at the bigger economic picture that any talk of growth is premature.
“In areas such as Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands – where unemployment is already among the highest in the UK – unemployment continues to go up, meaning yet more misery for families struggling to get by.”
Unfortunately, the figures may be slightly skewed by the number of people in part-time work whilst waiting to find full time employment opportunities. In the figures released by the Office of National Statistics, as part of the Labour Market report, the number of part time workers in the UK increased by 134,000 in this quarter alone. The total figure now stands at 8.12 million, which is the highest number recorded in this group since records began in 1992.
More records were broken in this group, too, as 1.42 million people claim to be in their part-time employment as a result of not being able to find a full-time job.
Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, John Walker, said; “Policies targeted at stimulating job creation, such as extending the National Insurance contributions holiday, are needed to give small firms the confidence to create full time positions and take on staff.”
He added that more people finding full-time work is essential if the economy is to recover at a faster pace.
It appears, then, that the Olympics certainly benefited London – yet it remains to be seen if the “London legacy” will have a knock on effect upon the rest of the country. Hopefully, London’s professionalism during the Games will have come across to the rest of the world, attracting yet more business leaders to Britain and bringing with them more full-time work for people desperately wishing for a breakthrough.
Do you believe that the Olympic and Paralympic Games have had a lasting effect upon British employment, or that these figures will have dropped dramatically by next quarter’s results due to the number of temporary jobs created? Do you think more people in full-time employment is really the best way to move the country out of recession quickly?
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