Unemployment figures for last month show Thanet still has the highest overall rate in Kent for people out of work, at 5.2% of the working age population (4220 people) and the highest rate in the south east for 18-24 year olds out of work at 10.7% – equating to 935 young people.
However, these rates have declined slightly with 15 fewer people out of work for all ages since June and youth unemployment down from a high of 11.6% in March.
Thanet Jobcentres say that for the isle latest figures show that during the past 12 months unemployment for those over the age of 50 has dropped by 9% and for all ages on Universal Credit there has been a drop of 8% in unemployment.
Job Centre programmes
A UK Hospitality Passport Sector Work-Based Academy Programme run by Thanet Jobcentres has equipped local jobseekers with the skills and confidence to enter the hospitality industry. Delivered in partnership with East Kent College in Broadstairs, the programme offered bespoke employability and hospitality training tailored to the needs of both learners and local employers.
Participants engaged in a four-week intensive course covering customer service, food and beverage operations, and workplace readiness. The training was designed to reflect real-world hospitality environments, ensuring learners were fully prepared for employment opportunities in the sector.
During the training, participants undertook work placements with businesses including Thorley Taverns, Premier Inn, and The Yarrow. These placements provided valuable hands-on experience and opened doors to potential long-term employment. Employers praised the enthusiasm and preparedness of the candidates; many of whom have since progressed into interviews and job offers.
Nicholas Gurr, DWP Recruitment Specialist for Margate and Ramsgate Jobcentres, said: “The UK Hospitality Passport programme has been a resounding success. It’s been fantastic to see customers grow in confidence and gain real skills that are directly relevant to our local hospitality sector.
“The collaboration between East Kent College and our employer partners has created a powerful pathway into work, and we’re already seeing the positive impact on participants’ lives.”
Future Ready event
The next event arranged by Thanet Jobcentres is Future Ready, an employment, skills and community event taking place on September 12th in Queens Road Baptist Church, Broadstairs.
Bringing together local employers, training providers, and support services, the event is designed to promote the three pillars of the Government’s Get Britain Working white paper: the Youth Guarantee, Tackling Economic Inactivity Caused by Ill Health, and Driving Growth Through Employment.
Attendees will have access to job opportunities, health and wellbeing support, and career development resources—aimed at helping individuals of all ages move into sustainable work.
The Government pretending they’re part of the solution when their national insurance jobs tax has hit these sectors so hard, causing employers to stop recruiting. A Government led by a Cabinet who haven’t got a clue how business runs.
But it may be a cynical ploy by Gov. By reducing the threshold from circa 9000 to 5000 it’s going to encourage employers to reduce part time employees hours even further and then take on additional workers to get existing and new staff under the 5k limit.
This notionally reduces the unemployment rate, but is utter tosh as it just juggles the figures rather than actually improving the overall econimic picture
I am very surprised IF it has gone down, with thousands of new homes being built in Thanet. How can it go down, this area has always been a black spot for jobs paying crap wages with no future. They have now added thousands more people to the list, and it goes down I think NOT.
You only have to have regular employment of at least 1 hour a week to not be classed as unemployed. So you could have 39 people doing what would be seen as one job, but it keeps them all of the register.
An honest statistic would be aggregate all the hours not worked by part time workers and come up with a “full time equivalent “ figure for unemployment, only those claiming benefits would need to be included.
Plus the manston reception centre has become on of the isles biggest employers and by itself will have tilted the numbers.
Seems my reply went into moderation, so might be delayed, but to add to it, those on benefits and with no requirement to seek work aren’t counted as unemployed, recent figures show this section of benefit claimants has risen significantly in recent times, so again an easy way to notionally massage unemployment rates.
Though that’s a complicated subject in itself as it’ll contain those who genuinely are incapable of doing any work.