Rising job vacancies 'harder to fill' in Teesside

Employment figures were released by the DWP this week showing the number of people out of work in the North East had dropped by 1,000 on the last quarter.

But there are still concerns about the levels of youth unemployment being seen in parts of the region.

Read more: Temporary job centre opens at Lingfield Point, Darlington

Lee Ogden, partnership manager at the DWP, said one transport giant Arriva was aiming to recruit 190 drivers at its Darlington depot – with Teesside set to be covered by the push.

The company confirmed the recruitment drive was seeking people from a range of backgrounds – with an average starting salary of £24,000.

An Arriva spokesperson said: “We can train the drivers so experience is not essential.

“You need to hold a clean driving license and be over 18-years-old.”

However, Mr Ogden revealed it was starting to get harder to fill the number of jobs coming through – with the number of Jobcentre customers now slightly lower than it was before the start of the pandemic.

He added: “A lot of our customer base is what we call harder to help people.

“So we’re working with them to move towards the Labour market. but they’re not necessarily ready to go to work if there was a job for them.

“It is getting harder to fill them – the amount of vacancies is constantly rising.

“It’s in different sectors from what we had pre-pandemic.

“In all the time I’ve worked here, I’ve never seen Arriva want that many (drivers). It’s a huge amount – nearly 200 for a local area.”

Vacancies in care, manufacturing, and freight have remained high on Teesside in recent months – alongside call centre positions.

Sector based work academies to encourage people into care are continuing to help Teessiders know what the jobs entail.

But Mr Ogden confirmed it was hard to get workers when large employers were offering higher wages.

He added: “It’s all about selling it. Work coaches are brilliant at selling the care role, and whenever they’re advertised we get plenty of applications.

“But there are so many vacancies, we’re struggling to get the customers to fill them.

“It’s raising the positives of the role – the rewards of caring.

“The last thing we want is to get a load of people and they quit after a week because it’s harder than they thought.”

Youth unemployment has been a persistent problem on Teesside with efforts aiming to tackle it through the Kickstart programme.

Bridging the skills gap on Teesside is also a mammoth task ahead – with the recent UK2070 Commission report estimating around 35,000 people would need degree or Level 4 training just to match the UK average on qualifications.

Stockton North MPs Alex Cunningham raised concerns about House of Commons Library figures showing almost twice as many 16 to 24-year-olds were out of work in his constituency than the national average last month.

The Labour member feared it would mean a “lost generation scarred by unemployment” and called on the Government to take action.

Mr Cunningham said: “We don’t need more warm words about training schemes or jobs to come. We need the training places now.

“Our young people’s futures depend on it.”

A pandemic ‘kicking’

Mr Ogden said youth unemployment had been a priority across the Tees Valley since before the pandemic struck – with the Kickstart scheme “geared towards them” to get on the labour ladder.

He added: “We’ve got youth hubs all across Teesside that we’re opening.

“We’ve just opened one in Middlesbrough – we’ve had one in Grangetown for a while.

“We’ve got one in Darlington which has just opened. Stockton doesn’t have one directly in Stockton yet – Middlesbrough are going to be covering them initially, but we are looking at putting a youth hub there as well.”

The Jobcentre worker added work coaches were specifically assigned to 18 to 24-year-olds so they didn’t have “mixed caseloads”.

Mr Ogden added: “It’s trying to focus support on that group.

“There is always a lag – it takes time to get results. I don’t like blaming things on the pandemic but that took a kicking over the past couple of years.

“It’s our priority. I understand when it’s our priority and the figures go the other way, it can be concerning – especially for an MP. That’s their job. But we are focussed on it.”

A jobs fair is expected to be held at Stockton Riverside College in the new year.

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