Redundancies

The official redundancy data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is based on individual responses in the Labour Force Survey rather than on a survey of companies. It measures the number of people who stated that they had been made redundant in the three months prior to interview. Until recently, this statistic was only available for the UK, but it has now been made available for regions, dating back to the start of 2009. The North East region includes the North East and Tees Valley LEP areas. The data is presented in three-month periods but is updated each month. Patterns can be quite volatile as North East totals can be based on a small sample size. 

In the final quarter of 2020 (Oct-Dec):

• There were a reported 8,400 redundancies in the North East region 
• this was a lower total than in the previous quarter (14,900), but more than double the total in 2019's final quarter (3,000)
• excluding the previous quarter, the latest total is the highest since 2012. The previous quarter's total was the highest since early 2009
• the latest North East total was equivalent to a rate of 7.9 redundancies per 1,000 employees (0.8 per cent)
• although high compared to previous years, this rate was lower than England's (12.8 per 1,000 employees)
• the latest North East rate was the joint lowest among the nine English regions.

There is no analysis of redundancies by industry at a regional level, but the latest statistics indicate that there were over 340,000 redundancies in the UK in the final quarter of 2020, and:

• Over 30 per cent of these UK redundancies were in either wholesale and retail or manufacturing
• a further 20 per cent were in either business administration and support or food and accommodation services
• redundancies in "other services" were more than 13 times the level in the same quarter in 2019 (this sector includes arts, entertainment, sport, recreation, personal services such as hairdressers and activities of membership organisations)
• redundancies in most sectors were more than double the totals of a year earlier
• the latest quarterly UK redundancy totals are equivalent to more than 2 per cent of employees in four sectors: business administration and support; food and accommodation; information and communication; and other services
• they are equivalent to more 1 per cent of employees in most sectors.