Commenting on jobless figures showing Birmingham as the worst hit for unemployment, Shabana Mahmood MP said:

“Once again Birmingham Ladywood has to face the grim reality that we have some of the worst unemployment figures in Birmingham and the UK. We cannot lose sight of the fact that each one of these numbers represents a family who now has to face the nightmare of no work.

“Unemployment has become endemic in our community. This is no fault of the neighbourhoods that create it, but instead demonstrate the underlying weaknesses imposed on us by an economy that is not functioning correctly. We used to have the beacon of light which was the retail and service sector in the City Centre, but the pandemic has robbed us of this thriving hub of employment.

“The Government says that they want people to retrain and reskill to find work, but for months now our city has been hollowed out of these jobs. Asking people to search for work that doesn’t exist is madness writ large for all to see.”

Read the article in full on Birmingham Live.