There was a welcome fall in unemployment this month, both locally in Acocks Green and nationally. The fall caught most commentators off guard and indicated that the economy is doing better than previously thought.

Seasonally adjusted UK unemployment fell by 700 in March to stand at a rate of 5.1%. The unadjusted rate fell by over 11,000 to stand at 1.53 million or 5.3%. Both these figures are for those on unemployment benefit. As not everyone who is unemployed claims unemployment benefit the real unemployment level is estimated to be 2.48 million, down 17,000 in the past 3 months, during which time the number of jobs in the economy has grown by an estimated 144,000 (5,000 in the West Midlands). This level of jobs growth is impressive, coming at a time of public sector job losses, and consists mostly of full-time jobs.

More locally, unadjusted unemployment fell by 95 in March in Birmingham to stand at 46,975, or 11.6%, while for Acocks Green the figures fell by 19 to 1,155 (10.2%) down 173 on a year ago.

While there will no doubt be some tough quarters ahead (everyone assumes that next quarter will see the peak in the reduction of public sector jobs) these figures, together with very strong export figures out yesterday, do indicate that the rebalancing of the eoncomy, back towards manufacturing industry is making good progress. The trouble is that we are left with a very low base in manufacturing after the scandalous neglect of this sector of the economy under Thatcher and Blair/Brown, but at last things are moving in the right direction.

While I look at the bigger picture, its also important to comment on the very high price of oil and other key commodities, which are the biggest global threat to economic growth. They make it vital that we invest even more in greening our economy (the Coalition government is making good progress on this but needs to go even further). Only by becoming much more efficient in our use of natural resources will we be able to continue to grow jobs in the long-term, and so projects such as the Green Deal are vital to both our environmental and economic health.