Best news for the region's recruitment market in many a year has been the conclusion by independent think tank Demos that, for the first time in 30 years, the North's brain drain to the South has dried up.
If this proves a trend and not a fluke it would promise inward investors a higher skills pool.
Though unemployment has been falling - and Durham, Chester le Street, Berwick and the predominantly rural Tynedale and Teesdale enjoy employment rates higher than the UK average - there are still more than usual numbers of people long-term and otherwise out of work in the region as a whole.
About 57,000 more jobs are needed to match national average. Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and South Tyneside are most in need of more jobs.
Official figures in November 2003 indicated 76,000 people without work in the North-East despite the Government's Back to Work policies - compared with 1.069m in jobs.
The region has the lowest proportion of any workforce in England holding degree-level qualifications, and the highest number of workers unqualified.
Though there has been improvement over five years, it has only kept pace with national improvements. It has yet to close the gap with the rest of the country.
However, employers, trade unionists, skills providers and public sector professionals are all working together to tackle this. Poor literacy and numeracy alone cost industry around £4.8bn a year.
Among schools of the local education authorities, only Darlington, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Stockton have lower than all-England averages of no passes in GCSE/GNVQ results.
Newcastle's LEA failures are more than double the average all-England rate. Average spending per pupil there was almost wholly below the England average between 1996 and 2001, and Newcastle's situation is also affected by a high number of places taken up there in directly funded schools.
The good news
Whereas in the North-East the lowest number of 17 and 18-year-olds once went to university, the region is now up to national average.
Now the challenge is to persuade more graduates to stay on in the region and contribute to its future.
Encouragingly, Northumbria University for one has found its graduation retention up from 49pc to 71pc in six years.
For graduates and post-graduates eager to excel on their own account, the Sunderland-based Entrepreneurs Forum is enabling young aspirants to be tutored by some of the region's entrepreneurs already established.
Chris Roberts, executive director of the Tyne and Wear Learning and Skills Council, says the percentage of workforce qualified to intermediate skills levels (apprenticeships, skilled crafts and technician level) is relatively low in the UK as a whole: 28pc compared with 51pc in France and 65pc in Germany.
But in provision of training by employers, the North-East has a better average than England as a whole, and is ahead of the game nationally in NVQs, SVQs and modern apprenticeships.
Being a strong manufacturer, the region is gaining under the Government's National Skills Strategy which, among other things, aims to extend modern apprenticeships.
Universities contribute
University business schools of the region work with the corporate community in providing a wide range of courses, including MBAs.
Biggest among them is Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University, teaching 4,000 students at a time. Durham MBA programme, meanwhile, has been placed 61st in The Economist's World 100 rankings, and 12th nationally in those of the Financial Times.
The region's only recruitment firm quoted on the stock exchange, Northern Recruitment Group, expects more public-service appointments to be made in coming months.
Nigel Wright, which recruits specialists, is taking its services nationwide but still centring its operations on Newcastle, and using electronics and staff missions for assignments out of the region.
Five training providers have meanwhile joined forces to form The Collective, a Gateshead-based venture to serve 500 employers and provide vocational training to more than 2,000 learners a year.
Business Comment
Enterprise North East
Evening Gazette's
