![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/686d925c001f9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Depressing figures detailing Walsall\u2019s economic growth indicates that the borough is behind national averages on nearly every front.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
The information was presented at the authority\u2019s prosperous places and investment scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday June 3, by the executive director for economy, environment and communities, Dave Brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly one in four of Walsall\u2019s 288,736 residents are economically inactive and 12,200 people need to be put to work to hit the government\u2019s target of 80 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown added that although unemployment rates are high, the number of people claiming benefits is low.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Walsall has 9,545 businesses, but for the size of its population, it needs an additional 3,125 to reach its \u2018full potential\u2019.<\/p>\n
Also highlighted was a lack of funding going into innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown said Walsall was not \u2018getting its fair share\u2019, receiving just \u00a32 per head of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding compared to \u00a3107 nationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The percentage of reception children with a good level of development in Walsall is best in the Black Country but still lagging behind the national average.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The GVA per head in Walsall, a measurement of economic output, is \u00a319,069 \u2013 \u2018massively below\u2019 the national average of \u00a336,632.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wages in Walsall are rising but still \u00a35,000 less than national average at \u00a332.624.<\/p>\n
Walsall along with the rest of the Black Country has seen \u2018decades of underinvestment\u2019, with over a \u00a32.3billion shortfall in the last five years alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Walsall and the Black Country continue to face socio-economic challenges and 2024 was a tough year. It was heard that early signs for 2025 aren\u2019t much better.<\/p>\n
On a brighter note, Walsall\u2019s export growth at 39.1 per cent is higher than the national average of 27.2 per cent. In 2022 Walsall surpassed Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton in total export value.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown added: \u201cI think we all know that if we looked at the borough from an economic perspective, you could draw a line from the north to the south and the demographics of the east and the demographics on the west are almost polar opposites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOver a short span you will see healthy life expectancy, GVA per head massively different, it\u2019s one of the unique features of Walsall. How it varies so much over a small geographical distance and how stark that line is through the borough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Depressing figures detailing Walsall\u2019s economic growth indicates that the borough is behind national averages on nearly every front.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[22440,22441,855,9163,22439,748,9444,1354,393,9453,4884,14987,269,12,3669,9440,93,16823,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-249198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-102-5","9":"tag-102-5-fm","10":"tag-birmingham","11":"tag-black-country","12":"tag-brierley-hill","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-dab","15":"tag-dudley","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-fm","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-halesowen","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-online","23":"tag-radio","24":"tag-sport","25":"tag-stourbridge","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114820110435958485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}