What is the unemployment rate in Camborne?And in Cornwall?The question came up this week at our workshops at Torpoint Comunity College and none of us were quite sure of the answer, though we knew that levels were high. Bev Faull, community police officer in charge of the migrant worker beat, said at least 3,000 migrant workers had come into Cornwall since the start of January for seasonal work, mainly daffodils.
Every day I drive past a farm where a local grower has to recruit hundreds (600)workers from eastern Europe to pick daffodils. He is just down the road from Camborne, where unemployment is high. But he cannot find local pickers to do the work.
Some statistics from the Camborne Redruth Packet newspaper last Sunday - and the chilling suggestion of a 'lost generation' of young people:
"Unemployment figures show that the amount of people out of work in Devon and Cornwall has risen sharply over the past year.The number of people out of work and claiming benefits show levels have reached a 16-year high with a record number of people working part-time. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, leading to fears of a lost generation of young people." Camborne Redruth Packet, 18 March 2012
