It’s the home of chocolate, Thomas Shelby and the nation’s motor industry and is prized to once again become the engine of British job growth.

Championed by Osborne in the Budget, Britain’s second city is receiving huge investment to rebalance the spread of economic growth away from London.

With 96,000 businesses born in the Midlands since 2010, job creation has returned to Birmingham with aplomb and is fueling the 52 new businesses springing up daily.

IT may remain the dominant industry for contract job growth in Birmingham but manufacturing and engineering is the real success story. Despite a shrinking national market, Birmingham has turned the trend on its head by growing advertised contract roles by 7% in February.

As skill shortages are felt more acutely in this sector, demand for agencies with access to candidates is driving prices up for recruiters.

Day rates for contract principal design engineers and quality systems engineers in Birmingham now crest £425 and £375 respectively.

Sitting ahead of London and narrowly behind the South-East, the region is a dominant force in manufacturing and engineering, accounting for 16% of all advertised job vacancies.

In February there were 400 live contract vacancies in the sector with the most sought after areas within engineering being design, production and electrical.

Birmingham’s growth shows no signs of being short-lived after several large scale investments and projects into the area including the development of the highspeed rail H2 and the masterplan regeneration of the Snowhill district.

A £14m investment into STEAMhouse innovation, a £250m investment into small businesses in the Midlands and an additional £200m agreement to build the second largest office development outside of London.

The home of heavy metal band Black Sabbath appears to once again be bringing metal back to its walls.