WHEN I first became Wyre Forest’s MP, local unemployment was around 2,500 – about 4.8% of the local population. Now at around 750, just 1.8% of the local workforce are looking for work. It is an economic theory that a healthy economy, in equilibrium, has an unemployment rate of around 2.5%. This number will include people in between jobs, usually unemployed for a few weeks or months at the most. Importantly, it means that a new business looking to open or expand will have access to local labour – important for a dynamic economy. If unemployment falls below that level, new businesses have a problem finding labour and local wage inflation begins.

In the case of Wyre Forest, that is a good thing. Wyre Forest had a lower than average local wage and whilst it is now rising up the rankings, Wyre Forest is still, in my opinion, an area that could do with increased local incomes.

New businesses have moved to the area, explaining why we are seeing an increase in employment and wages. When a company like Sealine collapsed, local unemployment was absorbed quickly in the workforce. But we have a problem.

For some time, businesses in Wyre Forest have been complaining to me that they cannot find the skills they need. I met a company last week, new to the area, that has been trying to fill its workforce locally. They are a company in the automotive supply chain offering both higher local wages and training. Yet they are running around 20% short of their current demand for workers and have just 12% of their potential demand. Without workers, they cannot expand. They now have to seek workers from as far away as Bridgnorth and Birmingham.

Wyre Forest District Council has met with them, as has Kidderminster College, to see if we can help secure training and interest. The Open Schools initiative, where businesses open up to school kids in the summer to get a taste for local opportunities, should help in the future, but not in the short term. Business rates are set to drop by 10% in Wyre Forest, cutting costs for local businesses that could be used to top up local wages. But the simple challenge that faces us is this: if we cannot find workers for better paid, higher skilled jobs, businesses will go to where they can find the labour it needs.