The South West has topped the bill as the region with the highest employment rate for six months in a row, figures show.

The region is now consistently outperforming its rivals across the UK, after wrestling the employment title from the South East. One business analyst said the South West was now the “stand out region” for employment.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released this week show that for the three months ending April 2018, the latest time for which figures are available, the South West had an employment rate of 79.4 per cent – higher even than the South East or London. The UK employment rate is 75.6 per cent.

Previous ONS data shows the South West has had more people in work than the rest of the UK since November.

Although there are more people employed in the South West than any other part of the UK, it appears many of the jobs are part-time. Of the 2.8 million people in employment in the South West, 853,000 were part-time during 2017, the highest proportion of any region for the year.

J. Pitts