Helping people into work
Employment rate
The employment rate amongst working age residents of Coventry is estimated at 71.2% in 2021; this is unchanged from last year. Coventry is following the regional and national recent trends; but Coventry’s employment rate remains lower than the regional and national average. Coventry’s lower rate is partly explained by the fact that Coventry is home to a high number of economically inactive full-time students, reflecting the success of the two growing local universities. The employment rate in 2021 remains lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated rate was 73.0% in 2019 - up to 2019 the rate had been on a gradually increasing trend since 2015.
Unemployment rate
The unemployment rate reduced slightly from 5.9% in Jan – Dec 2020 to 5.5% in Jan – Dec 2021. At 5.5% the Coventry unemployment rate is higher than both the 5.0% average for the West Midland Region and the 4.5% average for England for Jan – Dec 2021.
Personalised job support
The Coventry Job Shop is continuing to increase its presence in communities whilst maintaining a strong central hub in the City Centre. The Coventry Job Shop now have regular Job Coach support in the Wood End, Henley, Manor Farm and Deedmore area; plus, Canley, Tile Hill, and Willenhall.
Since March 2021, the shop has achieved:
• 2,926 new customers registrations;
• 890 supported in to work;
• 115 New Employers engaged for support with recruitment of local people
• 9,847 visits to the Job Shop face-to-face both booked through the online booking portal and drop-ins following COVID-19 restrictions.
New jobs supported
In 2020/21, with the support of the Job Shop and the Kickstart Scheme, 184 jobs were created – of which 152 were through the Kickstart scheme. This was an increase from the 34 jobs created in 2020/21. The top three employment sectors were administration, marketing, and retail and sales with 25 jobs created in each.
