ELN: There are 24.2 unemployed workers chasing each live unfilled job vacancy in Hackney the GMB Congress in Brighton was told. This makes Hackney top of the London league with the highest ratio of claimants to unfilled job vacancies. In Hackney there are 10,941unemployed claimants chasing 452 unfilled job vacancies. Next in the London league in terms of number of claimants for each unfilled vacancy are Haringey 23.5; Greenwich 22.9; Lewisham 22.4; Barking and Dagenham 21.8 and Waltham Forest 19.4. Below are the figures for the 33 boroughs of London. These figures are contained in a GMB analysis of official unemployment and vacancy data for April 2011 published today to coincide with a debate at the GMB Congress on a new ground breaking GMB report entitled “A Fresh Way Forward for the UK Economy”. This looks at the economic policies that led to the banker’s recession and high unemployment. It also plots the policies to promote jobs and economic stability in all regions of the United Kingdom. A copy of the report is at the foot of the national release on the GMB website www.gmb.org.uk The figures show that in London there are a total of 226,182 unemployed claimants chasing a total of 22,401 unfilled job vacancies. That means that there are 10.1 unemployed workers chasing each unfilled job vacancy across the capital as a whole. The figures show that in Great Britain there are a total of 1,461,644 unemployed claimants chasing a total of 253,698 unfilled job vacancies. That means that there are 5.8 unemployed workers chasing each unfilled job vacancy across the country as a whole. The number of unemployed claimants chasing each unfilled vacancy by region in Great Britain is as follows in descending order: London 10.1; Scotland 9.2; North East 7.8; North West; 6.5 Yorkshire and Humber 6.1, Wales 5.3; West Midlands 4.9; Eastern England and East Midlands 4.5; South East 4.2 and South West region 3.7. The full table with all 206 areas in Great Britain is set out as a pdf at the foot of the national release on this subject on the GMB website (www.gmb.org.uk). Live unfilled vacancies and total claimants in the 33 boroughs in the capital: London 22,401 226,182 10.1 Countries and Local council areas 1 Hackney 452 10,941 24.2 2 Haringey 450 10,577 23.5 3 Greenwich 334 7,644 22.9 4 Lewisham 443 9,926 22.4 5 Barking and Dagenham 302 6,581 21.8 6 Waltham Forest 476 9,244 19.4 7 Bexley 319 4,500 14.1 8 Redbridge 522 7,224 13.8 9 Brent 731 9,918 13.6 10 Newham 868 11,284 13.0 11 Lambeth 932 11,799 12.7 12 Southwark 838 10,573 12.6 13 Tower Hamlets 863 10,507 12.2 14 Croydon 843 10,045 11.9 15 Merton 343 3,754 10.9 16 Sutton 328 3,526 10.8 17 Islington 703 7,189 10.2 18 Havering 518 5,199 10.0 19 Enfield 1,033 10,007 9.7 20 Wandsworth 676 6,372 9.4 21 Bromley 596 5,560 9.3 22 Harrow 463 4,166 9.0 23 Ealing 1,040 8,902 8.6 24 Kensington and Chelsea 435 3,416 7.9 25 Hounslow 681 5,307 7.8 26 Barnet 1,076 6,891 6.4 27 Hammersmith and Fulham 861 5,323 6.2 28 Camden 907 5,575 6.1 29 Richmond upon Thames 349 1,937 5.6 30 Hillingdon 1,278 5,046 3.9 31 Kingston upon Thames 561 1,908 3.4 32 Westminster 1,711 5,276 3.1 33 City of London 469 65 0.1 Paul Hayes GMB Regional Secretary told the GMB Congress “Government spending did not cause the crisis. Nor did public borrowing. There was no problem with the public finances before the banks got into terrible trouble, causing confidence to collapse and the economy to sink into recession. As the recession hit home, firms and families cut back on their spending, tax revenues sank and public borrowing soared. By seeking to eliminate the deficit entirely within just four years the coalition is strapping the economy into a financial straight jacket. Easing the squeeze by spreading the adjustment over two Parliaments would improve the prospects for steady economic growth, thereby allowing sustained reductions in public borrowing without sacrificing public services. But there is an alternative to the coalition’s course to tackle the lack of job opportunities in the London. GMB reject the ideologically driven plan to remove the role of the state in protecting the citizens of our country. The priority should be to get the economy growing again. We need economic growth to carry more of the burden of deficit reduction. Shifting more of the squeeze onto taxation rather than on spending cuts, by cracking down on tax avoidance and international tax havens, would allow the burden to be spread more fairly. This approach would be widely supported in London”.