Quarter of Olympic jobs going to host borough workers

A quarter of jobs in the Olympic Park and the Olympic Village are going to workers in the host boroughs including Tower Hamlets, according to figures released yesterday.

The Olympic Delivery Authority’s job figures for March show that of the current 12,635 workforce on the two sites, 25 per cent live in Tower Hamlets or one of the four other Olympic boroughs - Greenwich, Hackney, Newham and Waltham Forest.

That is above the Authority’s target to have 15 per cent of construction workers living in the five boroughs, with 62 per cent in total living in London.

The Authority credits its “Olympic Park jobs and skills legacy” with a number of factors including their jobs brokerage service, which matches candidates in the host boroughs, and elsewhere in the UK, with work on site through Jobcentre Plus.

Since April 2008, 1,473 jobs have been filled through the brokerage which gives local workers 48 hours priority access to the jobs.

A statement by the ODA also said that 3,451 training places have been created through their National Skills Academy for Construction including the Plant Training Centre and Thames House Training Centre in Newham.