Has the North East witnessed the largest jobs growth in the UK?

"The North East is smaller in terms of overall population, but the jobs growth has been faster in the North East than in the rest of the country"—Matthew Hancock, 13 April 2015

When pressed on the issue of jobs in the North, the Conservative Minister for Business and Enterprise came out with this claim on the Victoria Derbyshire show.

If we're talking about change from the last twelve months (Oct-Dec 2013 to Oct-Dec 2014), the North East of England has witnessed the largest employment growth of any region of the UK according to the ONS—2.5%.

But if we're just comparing the last quarter of September to December 2014, the North East is still growing but second, with its employment growth of 1.1% behind the 1.4% of the West Midlands.

Employment isn't exactly jobs—this counts the number of people in employment, not just the number of jobs, and one person can have more than one job.

For more, see our previous post on this topic.