Chorley tops North West employment rates

Latest figures have revealed that Chorley has the highest employment rate in the North West.

The news comes after the announcement that Chorley Council is looking to put more investment into encouraging new businesses to the borough, bringing further high quality jobs for residents.

The figures for the year up to September 2015 show an employment rate of 84.2 per cent, up from 79.5 per cent the previous year – the best in the entire region.

Coun Alistair Bradley, leader of Chorley Council, said: “One of our main aims is to get people into work because we believe residents in employment lead more fulfilling lives and play a more active part in their community.

“We have focussed our efforts on bringing new employers into town as well as encouraging those that are already here to expand and take on more staff.

“We’ve been able to do this by providing advice and support, a range of different grants and we work with employers to make sure as many of the jobs as possible in Chorley got to residents of the borough.”

The latest statistics put Chorley at the top of the pile ahead of the North West average of 70.6 per cent and the national average of 73.4 per cent.

The wide ranging business support, as part of the Choose Chorley for Business campaign, has directly led to the creation of almost 300 jobs in the last year and more than £1.25m of private investment.

The new jobs are being created across the sector from new start-ups right through to multi-national companies choosing to relocate and expand in the borough.

“The figures show that what we are doing as a council, in partnership with other organisations such as Job Centre Plus is having an impact,” said Councillor Bradley.

“We’re not only working with businesses to create new jobs, we are working with residents to help them get them back into employment whether that’s through building self-esteem and giving them skills such as interview techniques. “We’ve got even more investment in job creation and skills planned for the next year as we want to keep the momentum up and get even more people earning money to give them a better quality of life.”