After the recent Spring 2024 Government Budget announcement, Rebecca is reflecting on the growth that Conservative policies have brought to Britain within this Government.

Recently, there has been significant success. Payrolled employees in the UK rose by 386,000 (1.3%) between January 2023 and January 2024. Annual growth in total earnings (including bonuses) in Great Britain was 5.6% in November 2023 to January 2024, and annual growth in employees' average regular earnings (excluding bonuses) was 6.1%.

Nationally, many more improvements have been seen. This includes but is not limited to;

• Employment: There are almost 33.2 million people in work in the UK (up 76,000 over the last year and up by over 4.1 million since 2010)
• Employment rate: Near record highs at 75% (up by 4.8 points since 2010)
• Unemployment: There are 1.3 million people in unemployment (down by over 1.1 million since 2010)
• Unemployment rate: The unemployment rate is 3.9% (down by 4 points since 2010) – near record lows
• Wages: Regular pay is continuing to grow and outpace inflation (up 6.1% in November 2023 to January 2024)
• Youth unemployment: There are 437,000 fewer unemployed young people since 2010.

Locally, there have also been major improvements under the Conservative Government, such as;

• 2.4% of the population aged 16-64 in Castle Point are unemployment claimants, much lower than the equivalent UK claimant rate of 3.8%.
• 4.1% of the population aged 18-24 in Castle Point are unemployment claimants, again much lower than the equivalent UK claimant rate 0f 5.1%.

In unemployment rates for both ages 16-64 and 18-24 as of Feb. 2024, Castle Point remains well below the national average!