Roof falls in on jobless total

HARTLEPOOL DESERVES a break. Just when a few wise voices were predicting unemployment would dip below 10 per cent - still high enough to make any town flinch - the main JobCentre roof caved in.

This delayed the processing of job applications and, suddenly, the north-east coastal town's jobless figure bounced back up to 11.5 per cent, the highest in the country in both May and June.

"It's quite a preoccupation for us as you can imagine," said Tim White, the head of economic and urban development at the local council.

Think of the heavy industries that have declined in the past 30 years - steel-making, engineering, shipbuilding and chemicals. Hartlepool had the lot and lost them.

When a restructuring of the town's economy began in the early 1990s, there was a very narrow range of industries left and some appalling preconceptions about the place. This was one reason a facelift was the priority when European money was thrown at Hartlepool. The resulting marina and quay development has created service-industry jobs, but detractors claim these have hardly dented the dole queues. Mr White counters: "If you are going to succeed in attracting and retaining jobs, you have to make sure it's as attractive a place to live and work as it can be."

As in nearby Sunderland, call-centre jobs have helped. But finding employment for workers from traditional industries is difficult. The men in particular find it hard to be flexible.

"Flexible shifts in the service sector have suited women returners with family responsibilities best, which might explain why we've found it easier to find women jobs than men," said Chris Livingstone, the JobCentre manager.

Hartlepool's marketing slogan underlines the realities. Nothing fancy about coastal delights, just "Hartlepool jobs for Hartlepool people".