A WINSFORD recruitment company said it has started to see an ‘upsurge’ in employment in the town.

Karen Blondel, managing consultant for Bralin Recruitment, said the company had overseen a promising start first half of 2014.

And the Winsford Indutrial Estate company believe outgoing mayor Mike Kennedy’s focus on developing employability skills of young people in the area has helped push growth in the right direction.

“So far this year, we have seen considerable increase in the number of placements,” said Karen.

“There has also been a noticeable upsurge in enquiries for more engineering and technical personnel, like maintenance technicians, engineers and machine setters.

“We’re certain a big part of this was as a result of clr Mike Kennedy’s skills agenda.”

The news follows Winsford Industrial Estate’s announcement that employee numbers had increased 14 per cent to 4,000 since the recession.

While the progress comes as positive news for Winsford, Karen said work still needed to be done to close a skills gap identified by a town council-commissioned report undertaken by Bralin earlier in the year.

Clr Kennedy added: “I am proud and delighted to see that employment prospects in Winsford are improving.

“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that local employers can hire skilled people from the area, but I am confident in the town’s future.”