There was bad news for the West Midlands job market in the third quarter of 2011 as numbers employed in the private and public sectors decreased.

Public jobs saw a decrease of 27,000 or -5.2 per cent compared to the same three months of the previous year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

All UK regions saw a decrease in the public workforce in the same time and across the UK numbers shrank by -4.4 per cent or 276,000.

The West Midlands and the North East were the only two regions to see a decrease in private jobs in the third quarter of last year, compared with the same three months a year earlier.

Private employment in our region shrank by 5,000 or -0.2 per cent.

In the year to Q3 2011, private employment in the UK increased by 262,000 to 23.12 million.

Local government employment in the West Midlands was the sixth highest region in the UK for the third quarter of 2011 at 255,000.

Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, there was a decrease of 23,000 workers or -8.3 per cent.

The ‘general government’ sector, the total of central and local government employment, in the West Midlands was sixth highest of the UK regions at 463,000.

Compared with the same quarter a year earlier this was a decrease of 25,000 or -5.1 per cent.