Northern Powerhouse Becomes a Reality

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent 

Second quarter figures released today have revealed notions of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ could soon become reality with job growth rates in many of the UK’s northern cities soaring ahead of the south.

Whilst London still held a 17.02 per cent share of the nation’s 391,811 jobs last quarter, active job growth across the UK’s top cities paints a very different picture. Despite Edinburgh only attributing a 0.62 per cent share of the UK’s jobs, it ranks first for job growth in Q2 and held this top position for 2 consecutive months during this period, coming second only to Liverpool in June 2015.

The UK’s top cities’ job growth in Q2 2015 were:

Edinburgh – 28.4 per cent growth
Liverpool – 16.94 per cent growth
Birmingham – 14.34 per cent growth
London – 12.71 per cent growth
Southampton – 10.74 per cent growth
Manchester – 9.32 per cent growth
Leeds – 8.73 per cent growth
Glasgow – 8.08 per cent growth
Newcastle – 5.13 per cent growth

This evidence suggests that plans to close the job growth gap that separates the north and south of the country is beginning to take effect. However, the number of jobs available in the north, despite their growth, still have a way to go before they can compete with London’s current share, as seen below:

London – 17.02 pe cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Birmingham – 5.79 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Manchester – 3.89 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Leeds – 2.96 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Southampton – 1.24 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Liverpool – 1.22 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Newcastle – 1.19 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Glasgow – 0.79 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2
Edinburgh – 0.62 per cent of UK’s jobs Q2

Despite Edinburgh, Liverpool and Birmingham holding low positions of the UK job share, they rank in the top 3 in terms of job growth for Q2 2015. In addition, London’s growth rate is slowing, suggesting that Cameron’s aims to increase job growth in the north and steady job growth in the south is working.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments that: “”It’s encouraging news to see such high job growth rates in the north so early on in the process. With planning projects of such a large scale, the recent news of infrastructure problems in the north and projected budget cuts aren’t surprising. However, our findings suggest that positive results will come from this scheme as we look to the future of job development in the UK.””

To complement the job growth figures of the UK’s top cities for Q2 2015, CV-Library has also noted that in June 2015, cities Liverpool, Edinburgh and Birmingham continued to remain in the top seated positions with job growth rates of over 50 per cent respectively, all of which are ahead of the UK’s national average of 40.3 per cent during this period.