Minutes:
Sally Raynes, Economic Development Officer, presented an update on the labour market which focussed on the employment and skills situation once furlough ends on 30th September. The presentation included the following points:
· There are high levels of vacancies for well paid jobs in East Devon across all sectors and wages are increasing in lower paid sectors.
· The ability to access well paid jobs is impacted by the need to drive to places of work.
· Regarding unemployment in East Devon, the largest out of work group is the 30-45 age group.
· Various schemes are in place to reduce unemployment and help the unemployed back in to work.
· It is still too early to understand the effects of the ending of the furlough scheme and which groups will be most affected.
· With regard to pay, East Devon residents are paid only 88.3% of the average weekly pay in the UK.
· Traditionally low paid sectors and largest employment sectors are raising wages from minimum wage due to shortage of applicants in sectors such as hospitality, construction, care sector and transportation.
· The most effective way to increase average pay is to encourage the workforce to improve skills to enable them to take up better paid jobs.
· There are many free schemes available to support people with up skilling or re-skilling and lots of apprenticeships available in all sector and at all levels.
· As the furlough scheme ends, residents will need assistance with signposting to re-skilling to enable them to take up better paid jobs.
Questions and comments from Members included the following points:
· It was noted that the removal of the £20 increase in Universal Credit is likely to impact low paid workers many of whom rely on the benefit, however, there is no way of ascertaining what the actual impact will be.
· It is vital to encourage and assist those in lower paid jobs to move into better paid work and women aged 45+ are of particular concern in this regard.
· EDDC Officers are in contact with the DWP and the various schemes available such as SkillUp and SmartSkills in order to be able to support residents with moving into better paid work.
· Access to transport is crucial for those seeking to change employment and this has a particular impact on younger people.
· There is a mismatch between the types of jobs available and the jobs which are being sought by residents in line with their current skills and job sectors, many of which are in hard to access rural locations.
· It was noted that the mismatch between vacancies and skills is a nationwide issue. There is DWP funding available to assist with retraining and reskilling to help people move into better paid employment.
· Those seeking to change their employment appear to be less willing to move to a different area.
· It was noted that Devon County Council is preparing a bus improvement plan which should be published by the end of October for implementation in March 2022 and that this should address issues with improving access to employment locations.
· A key challenge for recruitment and the movement of the workforce is the relationship between escalating prices in the housing market and the labour market.
· There is a need for employers to be more flexible with working hours which would also go some way to addressing issues with the timing of public transport for those travelling to work.
The Chair thanked Sally Raynes for her very informative presentation. The presentation slides would be circulated after the meeting and further updates on the economy would be brought to future meetings.