Stourbridge Jobcentre takes on extra staff (From Stourbridge News)

Stourbridge Jobcentre takes on extra staff

2:00pm Wednesday 26th August 2009

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AS thousands of people continue to head to the dole queue, Stourbridge Jobcentre has become the place to find a job - literally.

Thirty extra staff have been taken on at the centre in Lower High Street since the beginning of the year to help cope with demand from the ever-growing number of jobseekers.

The news comes as latest figures released by the Office of National Statistics show 2,716 people in Stourbridge claimed Jobseekers Allowance last month (July) - a staggering 5.4 per cent, compared to the national figure of 4.1 per cent... a 100 per cent rise on unemployment figures for July 2008 and the highest figure this year.

Tina Feakes, customer services operations manager at Black Country Jobcentre Plus, said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for people facing redundancy to find a new job quickly and claim any benefits they may be entitled to.

“We have helped over 10,000 people back into work in the last three months across the Black Country district.”

Margot James, Stourbridge’s Prospective Parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, welcomed the extra jobs - a mix of full and part-time posts, saying: “I think that’s good news, they need more staff.

“When I went to see them earlier in the year they were under huge pressure - the staffing levels were geared to much lower levels of unemployment; they couldn’t cope with the sudden increase.

“I welcome the fact that there’s more staff now.

“It’s really important that people who’ve lost their jobs have immediate opportunities to get support and retraining. “We don’t want people to become demotivated and totally demoralised.

“It’s sad, however, that one of the very few areas of increased employment is in services for people who have lost their jobs.”

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said nearly £2billion has been invested in Jobcentres across the country - and 4,000 new staff recruited - to help people get back into work.

But she said a breakdown of the amount spent in each region would not be made available.

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