Employment figures show county is turning corner - Farron

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has welcomed official figures release to him in answer to a parliamentary question which show that 6,000 more people were employed in Cumbria in 2012 than the previous year.

The increase comes after five years of falling employment between 2008 and 2011, when the number of people in work in the county fell by 9,000 in total.

Tim has also welcomed the latest Duport Business Confidence Report for Cumbria which showed that 1,019 companies were formed in Cumbria in the first half of 2012.

Commenting on the figures, Tim said: "Both of these figures show that, despite the difficult economic situation nationally, here in the South Lakes we are starting to turn the corner."

Tim has been consistently campaigning to bring new jobs to the area, with successful Regional Growth Fund bids which have brought millions of pounds of investment to Gilkes in Kendal, Croppers in Burneside and the Windermere Steam Boat Museum; a massive investment by GlaxoSmithKline in Ulverston and the return of 100 jobs to the Ambleside campus of the University of Cumbria.

In addition, Tim has championed new apprenticeships in the county, which has helped 3,200 people to start and apprenticeship since August last year.

Tim continued: "Our community is making its own luck and proving there is a huge amount of vitality and strength in our local economy. These figures are encouraging but we must not be complacent. We must keep working hard, and creating our own luck."