Employment, Economy and the Wider Region
North Tyneside’s population currently stands at 192,000 (2001 census data). This makes a decline of only 1.8% in the decade since 1991 and represents a level of stability that was not seen in either the 1970s or 1980s when the area lost population. In recent years North Tyneside has lost a smaller proportion of its population than a number of the other Tyne & Wear boroughs. Forecasts for the next 10 years predict that the population level will continue to remain relatively stable.
Major employers in the area are from the manufacturing, retail/wholesale, health and social care, education, finance and call centre sectors. The principal manufacturing industries include offshore engineering, ship-repair, food processing, furniture, microprocessors & electrical components and chemicals. In recent years there has been substantial investment in the regeneration of North Shields and Longbenton areas and in the A19 corridor enterprise zone. Cobalt and Balliol Business Parks have also attracted considerable office developments. These industries have replaced the more traditional industries of the area such as ship building and coal mining.
The unemployment levels overall, and for both the male and female populations, are lower than the Tyne and Wear average. With total claimant unemployment (those claiming jobseeker's allowance), expressed as a proportion of the resident working age population was 3.3% in January 2007, lower than the North East rate but higher than the GB rate of 2.6%. There are, however, pockets of unemployment within the borough where the rate is much higher. The borough is the 69th most deprived in England, out of 354. However some parts function as relatively wealthy dormitory suburbs of Newcastle. Recent growth has come in the A19 corridor with new industrial estates and retail parks.
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