Unemployment in the East Midlands drops to summer 2025 level but skills investment needed

Richard Blackmore from The East Midlands Chamber

The East Midlands Chamber has welcomed a slight fall in the region’s unemployment from 5.6% to 5.2% but said skills support should be prioritised to further reduce the level and get suitable candidates into jobs.

The latest estimated figure from the Office for National Statistics for over 16s in the region covers the period between March and May 2026 and is the lowest level since July to September 2025, which was also 5.2%.

East Midlands Chamber Director of Policy and Insight Richard Blackmore said: “Any fall in unemployment is exactly what we want to see – but we want to see much more of a fall – a continuing downward trend, not just a blip.

“That means, on one hand, we want to see business ready to invest in growing their workforce, while those employers need to then be getting applicants who can hit the ground running by having skills that match the requirements of the role when they apply.

“Our most recent research – the Quarterly Economic Survey for Q2 of this year – showed hesitant recruitment among East Midlands employers, with just under half having attempted to recruit and six out of ten that did reporting difficulty finding candidates with the right skill level.

“I’d like to see some momentum with falling unemployment becoming a continuous pattern in the East Midlands. That’s why we have been calling for greater support to alleviate the cost of doing business, to incentivise firms to invest in growing their workforce, while skills should be prioritised by policymakers to help employers get the candidates they need.

“As the new Prime Minister and his Government set policy, I would urge the asks we have made around skills in our publication The Framework for Growth – such as the introduction of an online portal to make apprenticeships easier for firms to explore – to be prioritised so we can get more skilled people into jobs and achieve growth.”