Harrogate and Knaresborough MP has urged caution after September’s local jobless figures showed a rise of only 20 more people.
The September figure showed that 2790 people in the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency were seeking work compared to 2770 the month before.
Mr Jones commented:
The situation is moving fast. The number of cases is increasing, in some parts of the country very rapidly. It is therefore hard to make predictions in such a rapidly changing environment. I suspect that we are not likely to see the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our jobs situation until well in to 2021. So while this small rise in the jobless total is clearly better than a large increase the figures need to be viewed over a longer period.
Critical to this will be how our area is able to capitalise on the home tourism market and how quickly the conference and exhibition industry recovers nationally and locally. That is why I am pressing the government to agree a support package for that industry.
The local rate of unemployment stands at 4.5 per cent compared to a national rate of 6.5 per cent.
