So you want to get a job. What's going on in the world of work where you live? Here are a few facts and figures
To start on a cheerful note apparently the recession is officially over, however finding a job is still extremely tough especially for 16 -18 year olds. This means it is more important than ever to get qualifications under your belt before you venture beyond school, college or an apprenticeship.
Brighton and Hove
Here unemployment in February 2010 was up by 700 which was a rise of 12%. That's 6% higher than the national average. 13% more 16 -18 year olds are not in education, employment or training than last year.
In common with East and West Sussex more people commute out of Brighton and Hove to work than travel in to the area each day.
However it's not all doom and gloom; average pay is higher than the national average, Brighton and Hove is a nationally important centre for the creative and new media industries and the locals are really well qualified with 40.3% qualified to NVQ4 or above in comparison to 29% across the UK. Bear in mind though that this makes competition for jobs even tougher if your qualifications are not so great.
Most jobs in Brighton and Hove are in the public services, education and Health ( that's schools, hospitals and other things provided by national or local government), as well as, of course, tourism and those creative and new media companies.
East Sussex
East Sussex, as you will know if you live there, is a mixture of towns and lots of beautiful countryside. This creates particular problems for people travelling to work, especially young people. Half of all businesses are family run businesses and so are generally quite small. More people in East Sussex are self employed (18%) than the national average and, in contrast to Brighton and Hove only 23.2% have qualifications equal to NVQ4 and above. Unfortunately in March 2010Hastings still headed the list for unemployment in the South East region However the highest increase in unemployment was in Lewes..
In East Sussex 15% of all employees work in Health and Social Services reflecting the number of people who retire to this area . Whilst away from the coast, land based industries are more significant. Distribution, hotels and restaurants employ 26.5% of the workforce and Public Services are important again with 34.5%.
West Sussex
West Sussex is another largely rural area with it''s own travel to work problems but if you live in Crawley and Mid Sussex it feels like a very different place to the south coast. Gatwick is still a major employer despite being hit by the recession and there are more opportunities in areas such as engineering and in all the other areas of work needed to keep a large airport functioning.or which benefit from being close to the airport and the M25.
In February 2010 the unemployment rate for West Sussex was 3.2%. This was slightly up on 2009 and Crawley and Worthing seem to have borne the brunt of job losses with a higher increase than elsewhere in West Sussex. However the figure is still lower than the national average. Wage levels tend though to be lower than in the rest of the South East. 33% of the population are qualified to the equivalent of NVQ4 or above (a little bit below the national average).
In 2007 25.5 % of West Sussex workers were employed in the pubic sector with a further 24.7% working in districution, hotels and restaurants. The problems in the financial sector have made inroads in to the 24.7% employed in finance, banking and insurance in 2007.