New data shows businesses in Greater Birmingham have out-performed the UK average in terms of creating new jobs.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown that the area experienced an increase in private sector employment of 16,300 between September 2010 and September 2011.
The report suggests that private sector employment in the Local Enterprise Partnership area increased 2.6 per cent, which outperformed the UK average of 0.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, employment grew by 1.1 per cent in the Coventry and Warwickshire region over the same period, and by 0.6 per cent in the Worcestershire LEP area.
At the same time, employment fell by 0.1 per cent in the Greater Manchester LEP region, 0.7 per cent in the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP area and by 3.2 per cent in the Black Country LEP region.
The increase was driven by a rise in business, professional and financial services which enjoyed a growth of 15,300 and helped to offset a decrease in employment in retail of 6,500 and computer programming, consultancy and related industries of 3,500.
Andy Street, GBS LEP chairman, said: “It’s always important to take care when interpreting figures, but it’s equally important that the activity the LEP and its partners are undertaking is set against a background of measures.
"It is still too early for us to see the impact LEP programmes and initiatives are having on employment, particularly as the figures we are looking at are a snapshot of what was happening 12 months ago.
“However, it is encouraging to see the LEP area performing well in a number of key areas and it is important we can see sectors that are not performing so well in order to influence policy.
“We have set challenging targets of creating 100,000 jobs by 2020 and it is going to be important for us to measure the progress being made.”
